One day to go – and we can’t wait to get the party started!
FROM hanging Union Jack flags across streets and gardens to knitting life-sized figures of the Queen, Britain has gone Jubilee mad.
While official celebrations won’t start until tomorrow, the public’s preparations are already in full swing with Britons up and down the country making quirky tributes to the 96-year-old monarch.
A record 12million people are set to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at street parties.
Some royal superfans were setting up tents yesterday to get a prime spot on The Mall ahead of tomorrow’s Trooping the Colour. In Holmes
‘Replica made out of Victoria sponge’
Chapel, Cheshire, 34 women have knitted a life-sized Queen in a white dress and robe, complete with a knitted lifesized corgi sitting beside her.
Norwich also has a life-sized knitted Queen on display. It was originally made for the 65th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation in 2017 with over 1,000 balls of wool.
The 140-member strong Secret Society of Hertford Crafters has spent more than 15,000 hours on creating knitted installations. A particularly impressive piece is a figure of Charles and Camilla alongside William and Kate, and their three children, George, Charlotte and Louis.
A young girl marvelled at another of their creations – a stand of knitted cakes in honour of the British staple of afternoon tea. In Birmingham, social media star Lara Mason spent five days creating a 5ft 3in replica of the Queen made out of Victoria sponge cake, using 400 eggs, 20kg of flour and 20kg of butter.
At Bamburgh beach in Northumberland, artist Claire Eason spent four hours painstakingly etching a 65ft postage stamp into the sand.
Legoland has staged its own miniature pageant, with a display of the Red Arrows flying over Trafalgar Square and a model of Buckingham Palace and the Jubilee Tree of Trees.
Sales of bunting, trifle dishes and royal favourite tipple Dubonnet are soaring in the run-up to the bank holiday. At John Lewis, sales of deckchairs have increased by 1,965 per cent and teapots by 317 per cent compared to last week. With a special 1am closing time for pubs over the fourday weekend, 120million pints are expected to be consumed.