The Royal Visit to Wellington

The 1954 Royal Visit was the first and longest visit of the monarch to Wellington. In the weeks and months leading up to the tour of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, the city put a huge amount of effort into cleaning, painting and decorating the city to make it look its best. The number of people which turned out onto the streets for the occasion are said to have been the largest crowds ever to gather in Wellington's history. Many of the scenes shown in this booklet were also captured in 8mm motion-picture film taken by a City Council staff member (most likely Allister Bristow who was based at the Central Public Library but who also worked as the WCC's archivist and unofficial photographer & filmmaker). You can view the digitised film here