In 1977, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth celebrated as it was the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, marking the 25th anniversary of The Queen’s accession to the throne.
Celebrations were marked in June during “Jubilee Days” which coincided with The Queen’s Offical Birthday. The anniversary of the date itself, 6 February 1977 was commemorated in church services. In March of that year, preparations were underway for large parties in every major United Kingdom city as well as smaller ones aas countless individual street parties were planned throughout the country.
To mark the Jubilee, The Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh visited a total of 36 counties. No monarch before had visited more of the United Kingdom in such a short time span (three months.) The trip brought record crowds and later in the summer, the tour continued to different realms of the Commonwealth.
On 6 June 1977, The Queen lit a bonfire at Windsor Castle, the first of a series of beacons which spread across the night and throughout the whole country. The next day, on 7 June, crowds lined the route of the procession to St Paul’s Cathedral where the royal family attended a Service of Thanksgiving alongside many world leaders. Some of those at the service included US President Jimmy Carter, Prime Minister James Callaghan as well as the other living former British prime ministers.
A reception hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Peter Vanneck, followed the service. Then, it was a procession down The Mall to Buckingham Palace where an estimated one million people lined the streets to see the family. A further 500 million people around the Commonwealth watched the events unfold on television. In London alone, there were over 400 organised parties to mark the Jubilee.
On 9 June, The Queen made a Royal Progress trip by boat up the River Thames from Greenwich to Lambeth. It was a re-enactment of the famous progresses taken by Queen Elizabeth I. The trip would be used to officially open the Silver Jubilee Walkway and the South Bank Jubilee Gardens. In the evening, there was a fireworks display followed by a procession of lighted carriages to Buckingham Palace.
Though it did not open until 1979, the under-construction “Fleet line” of the London Underground was renamed the Jubilee line and given a silver line colour. Other places named after the occasion were the Silver Jubilee Walkway and the Jubilee Gardens in South Bank, London.
