As last year’s Platinum Jubilee made us only too aware, we have never seen a monarch on the throne for as long as Elizabeth, and consequently we have never seen as big a gap between Coronations.
As these pictures show, the world was a very different place in June 1953, when King Charles II’s mother was officially made the Queen.
Here some pictures from around Portsmouth and also from the event in London.
1. 70 years ago
A coronation party in 1953 in Seymour Street, Buckland, with Elizabeth Johnson cutting the cake Photo: -
2. Newly crowned
June 2, 1953 - Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Imperial State Crown, and the Duke of Edinburgh in the uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, wave from the balcony to the onlooking crowds around the gates of Buckingham Palace after the Queen's Coronation Picture: PA Wire Photo: PA Wire
3. Trestle tables
Families celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 at Bedhampton Camp formerly HMS Daedalus III, Bedhampton. Photo: -
4. City centre
A rare view of Portsmouth Guildhall when being prepared for civic occasions during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 Photo: -