Exhibitions for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

The Queen’s Coronation, Windsor Castle

Further West, Windsor Castle will host a special display that commemorates the Queen’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953.

In this exhibition, on show will be the Coronation Dress and Robe of Estate worn by The Queen that day. 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 national and Commonwealth floral emblems in gold and silver thread and pastel-coloured silks, encrusted with seed pearls, sequins and crystals.

The Queen’s Robe of Estate was made by the royal robe-makers Ede and Ravenscroft of purple silk velvet woven by the firm of Warner & Sons, and was embroidered at the Royal School of Needlework. The goldwork embroidery design features wheat ears and olive branches, symbolising prosperity and peace, surrounding the crowned intertwined EIIR cipher. It took 12 embroiderers, using 18 different types of gold thread, more than 3,500 hours to complete the work between March and May 1953.