The day the crowds came out to cheer The Queen as she visited North End, Portsmouth – Retro
On Wednesday, June 29, 1977, the Queen, along with a large cortege of cars, left the South Railway Jetty at 10.45am to begin a tour of the city.
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Hide AdI am not too sure of the route the tour took but in these photographs loaned by Jerry Crane, the then-manager of the Odeon cinema, we see the cortege passing north along London Road.
Can anyone tell me what the route was after passing through North End?
Jerry Crane employed a unit of local naval cadets to parade outside the cinema to play the national anthem as the royal cortege passed by.
They can be seen in the picture, right.
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Hide AdJerry tells me he cannot remember where the unit came from but they certainly excelled in their playing.
Below, are some of the thousands of people who came out to cheer and wave as Her Majesty’s cortege passed north along London Road, North End.
Does anyone know where the cortege was heading?
And below we get a closer look at The Queen as delighted well-wishers take photographs of her.
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Hide AdI do enjoy it when someone sends me a photograph of a place in Southsea that’s dear to my heart.
The picture on the opposite page is looking south along Napier Road.
On the immediate left, on the corner of Collingwood Road, is Mr Miller’s grocery store.
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Hide AdWhere the lady with the light coloured coat is on the left pushing a pushchair is Dock Mill Cottages and just past her is the junction with Wisborough Road.
On the opposite corner is Vernon Barstow’s grocers.
My late maternal grandmother, Ruth Sutton, lived at number 11, Wisborough Road and opposite, at 4, Moulin Avenue, lived my mother’s sister Gertrude Saunders.
I used to spend many summer holidays between their homes.
I’d like to think that was my mother with me in the pushchair. Who knows.
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Hide AdAs can be seen, the street is decorated for the coronation of our present Queen Elizabeth II.
To think, this is all those years ago and we still have the same head of state reigning over us. How lovely.
Mike Smith sent me this photograph and he is researching Napier Road.
If anyone would like to contact him with more information about the area please do so.
You can reach Michael by emailing him on [email protected]