9. Buckingham Palace & Windsor Castle: Full-Day Tour
Begin the tour at Buckingham Palace, one of the few working royal palaces in the world. Explore the 19 lavish State Rooms with the help of a multimedia guide. After exploring on your own, meet the tour guide and board a coach for the ride to Windsor.
Windsor Castle, the world’s largest occupied castle, has been home to the royal family for over 900 years. Explore the castle grounds and St. George's Chapel, one of the finest examples of English medieval church architecture and the burial site of King Henry VIII.
Platinum Jubilee: The Queen's Accession - July 22 to October 2, 2022Platinum Jubilee: The Queen's Accession will include portraits of the Queen taken by Dorothy Wilding, alongside items of Her Majesty’s personal jewelry worn for the portrait sittings.
Shortly after Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, the first official photographic sitting with the new Queen was granted to the photographer Dorothy Wilding.
The series of photographs taken of the Queen in 1952 are remarkable for their modern, emblematic approach, and they have formed the basis of the Queen's image on postage stamps from 1953 until 1971.
Platinum Jubilee: The Queen's Coronation - until September 26, 2022At Windsor Castle, the Coronation Dress and Robe of Estate worn by the Queen for her coronation at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, will be on display.
Designed by the British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell, the dress was created in the finest white duchesse satin, richly embroidered in a lattice-work effect with an iconographic scheme of floral emblems in gold and silver thread and pastel-colored silks, encrusted with pearls, sequins, and crystals.
Her Majesty’s Robe of Estate was made by the royal robe-makers Ede and Ravenscroft of purple silk velvet. The goldwork embroidery design features wheat ears and olive branches, symbolising prosperity and peace, surrounding the crowned intertwined EIIR cipher.
It took 12 embroideresses using 18 different types of gold thread and more than 3,500 hours to complete the work between March and May in 1953.