Summer of celebrations will be a great time to visit
Here are a few things to do before or after all of the fanfare of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games
Don’t worry if your invitation to last year’s British Royal Wedding was somehow lost in the mail: 2012 is an even better time to sate your regal cravings across the pond. It’s Queen Elizabeth II’S Diamond Jubilee this year — that’s 60 years since her accession to the throne ( 12 months before her June 2, 1953 coronation) — making her the U. K.’ s second- longestserving monarch after stoic great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
Early June’s national long weekend of celebration — with back- toback public holidays — includes a pomp- tastic carriage procession and a 1,000- vessel River Thames flotilla. Check what’s on at www.thediamondjubilee.org. But if you miss the boat on the big weekend, there’s a fanfare of other ways to hit London’s blue- blood trail. Read on for tips from a Brit on the best Queen Elizabeth sites to enjoy on your next visit to the city.
Top shops
Among the exclusive London stores keeping the Queen in the manner to which she’s accustomed — each with a Royal warrant proving their official supplier status — is Jermyn Street’s Paxton & Whitfield ( www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk), an aromatic 200- year- old cheese emporium supplying treats like Hereford Hop and Shropshire Blue for the regal sandwiches. But for sweet tooth travellers, it has to be Charbonnel et Walker (www.charbonnel.co.uk), the Royal warranted chocolatier. Tucked into Old Bond Street’s Royal Arcade, its gold- framed windows showcase dainty boxes of sumptuous truffles — a stately souvenir that beats a jubilee coffee mug any day.
Fortnum & Mason
If the Queen ever pops out for milk, the basement food hall of this elegant Piccadilly department store ( www. fortnumandmason. com) is likely where she’d go — rather than Harrods, which controversially eschewed its Royal warrants when owned by Royal Family bête noire Mohamed Al Fayed. When the Queen made a rare multi- generational Fortnums visit with the Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge in March, the three smilingly perused the store’s posh chocolates and ownbrand dog biscuits before surveying the old fourth floor St. James’s Restaurant. Re- opened in March, it’s been renovated and renamed the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon and will serve elegant afternoon teas.
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
A centrepiece of June 3rd flotilla will be the Belfry Barge and its eight bells that will be rung along the route. Each named after Royal Family members, the largest of these is a half- ton clanger called Elizabeth.
The bells — to be permanently housed in London’s St. James Garlickhythe church after the festivities — were crafted at one of the city’s most delightful old businesses.
Founded in 1570, Whitechapel Bell Foundry is where both the Liberty Bell and the Great Bell of Westminster ( a. k. a. Big Ben) were cast, using methods virtually unchanged since the 16th century. There’s a small onsite museum here, but the behind thescenes foundry tour is highly recommended — book via www.whitechapelbellfoundry.co.uk
Windsor Castle
Mainly residing at Buckingham Palace, the Queen weekends at Windsor (www.royalcollection.org.uk) on London’s western edge. A fascinating 900- year- old fortress, it’s a much more rewarding destination for visitors. Plan for an afternoon wandering the castle’s expansive grounds, but don’t miss the giant dolls’ house the Queen played with as a child or the elaborate St. George’s Chapel where several monarchs are entombed. Also peruse displays on the devastating fire 20 years ago: it destroyed 100 rooms and led the Queen to describe 1992 as her “annus horribilis.”
Westminster Abbey
Like Windsor, the 1,000- year- old Abbey ( www. westminster- abbey. org) is close to the Queen’s heart. She was married to a little- known member of the Greek royal family here in 1947, an “austerity wedding” far less grand than last year’s nuptials with only still photos of the ceremony allowed. Just six years later, things were very different: promoted to the throne by the untimely death of father George VI, the 26- year- old Elizabeth was crowned here before a record- breaking television audience. After moving from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace, the former Princess Elizabeth’s life would never be the same again.
Queenly art
Several London galleries are marking the Diamond Jubilee with special exhibitions, but the two must- sees are at Trafalgar Square’s National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk) and South Kensington’s Victoria & Albert Museum (www.vam.ac.uk). Running for five months from mid- May, the former’s The Queen: Art and Image includes 60 striking portraits by leading artists such as Andy Warhol, Lucien Freud and official Royal photographer Cecil Beaton.