North Tyneside celebrated the Queen’s platinum jubilee in style, with more than 140 street parties, library events, floral displays, and a spectacular beacon lighting event.
The festivities were in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne, as she became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee.
Residents organised their own street parties and enjoyed a right Royal knees up in Benton, Camperdown, Cullercoats, Dudley, Howdon, Killingworth, Longbenton, Monkseaton, North Shields, Shiremoor, Wallsend, Whitley Bay, and Wideopen and more.
North Tyneside libraries invited people to take part in a range of activities including family picnics, art and craft sessions, and to enjoy Royal-themed reading selections throughout the end of May and into June.
Special Jubilee planters also added a splash of colour to 12 locations from Dudley to West Moor, and Wallsend to Whitley Bay.
The planters were being assembled in time for the four-day Bank Holiday weekend, each one adorned on two sides with the council crest and on the other two with the Queen’s white on purple Jubilee logo.
The planters are in the following locations:
- Dudley Crossroads
- Entrance to Annitsford Drive
- West Moor Shops
- The Boulevard in Longbenton
- Wallsend Town Centre outside the Forum
- Wallsend, outside Richardson Dees Park
- North Shields Town Centre
- Tynemouth Front Street
- Whitley Bay Town Centre
- Monkseaton Front Street
St Mary’s Lighthouse was lit in a regal shade of purple to coincide with the main event; a spectacular beacon lighting ceremony on Thursday 2 June at Segedunum Roman Fort and Museum.
The event, which kicked off at 6.30pm, included a family-focussed programme of entertainment by SALTo Arts Productions, as well as food vendors and market stalls, pipers and buglers, a firework display and a giant screen beaming out images from other ceremonies across Britain and the Commonwealth, and from seven decades of The Queen's reign.
The 101st Regiment Royal Artillery fired a 105mm gun to announce the start and end of the formal proceedings. Seven beacons including a huge steel brazier standing four meters high, manufactured by local company Smulders, was lit at 10pm, in keeping with beacon lighting events along the 73 mile length of Hadrian’s Wall.
