This article was published on June 5.

Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee as she marks 70 years on the throne.

Events took place over the bank holiday weekend to celebrate her reign include Trooping the Colour, a service of thanksgiving, a concert and a pageant, which will be shown on screens across the country.

More than 70,000 Jubilee events are planned in the four UK nations over the four day bank-holiday weekend, with several here in Reading.

This will not be the first times the town’s residents have come out to celebrate the monarch, who has visited Reading many times over the years.

She visited Royal Berkshire Hospital in 2006, after the trust completed an eight-year building project to bring services from Reading’s Battle Hospital on to a single site near the town centre.

In 1982, the Queen opened the multi-million pound Shire Hall complex at Shinfield Park with her husband Prince Philip.

More than 5,000 children cheered as the monarch came to town, welcomed by the then-Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, Col the Hon Gordon Palmer.

The Chronicle reported at the time that some of the royal couple’s huge rates bill at Windsor Castle had helped pay for the new Shire Hall.

And while dignitaries made the speeches, it was the youngsters who stole the show – with musicians from Berkshire schools playing fanfare in honour of Her Majesty.

Shire Hall was not the only landmark opened by Queen Elizabeth, who travelled with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to open the Civic Centre, the offices of Reading Borough Council, in 1978 – two years after the building was completed.

The pair had visited before in March 1957 on a processional tour of the town.

Their route included Friar Street, West Street, Broad Street, King Street, Duke Street, London Street, London Road, Alexandra Road, Elmhurst Road and Whiteknights Park.