The Queen started her Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK today with a visit to Leicester. Over the next few months the Queen will be touring all of the UK while other royals visit overseas locations.
The first stop in Essex will be on the 29th March. The Queen will first visit Valentines Mansion and Gardens in Ilford, the Duke of Edinburgh is expected to join here there at 10.25am. Valentines Mansion is more than 300 years old and was built in around 1696 for Elizabeth Tillotson and her family, after the death of her husband, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Queen will be in Walthamstow for lunch at Waltham Forest Town Hall on Forest Road, Walthamstow. Waltham Forest Town Hall is an impressive civic building. It was designed by P D Hepworth and built between 1937 and 1942.
Waltham Forest Town Hall is constructed partly from Portland Stone which is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset. The same stone is used in The Cenotaph in Whitehall, St. Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. Portland stone is also exported and was used to build the United Nations headquarters building in New York City.
The building is most famous for its exceptional circular Council Chambers and its conferencing facilities.
After lunching in Walthamstow the Queen will then head off to Harrow where she will visit the Krishna Avanti School, the UK’s first Hindu state school.
There are events and celebrations all over Essex for the Queen’s Julbilee.
