How much did the Queens silver jubilee cost?
Posted by Mr_meowton@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 14 comments
How much did the queens silver jubilee cost back in 1977? I been trying to find it but only the platinum one is showing up so I’m having a hard time finding it
DaveL16@reddit
Even ChatGPT isn’t sure
There doesn’t appear to be a single official figure for the total cost to the UK of the 1977 Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Unlike more recent royal events, detailed central-government accounting was not widely published, and much of the spending was spread across:
What is clear is that the scale was huge — nationwide celebrations, royal tours across the UK and Commonwealth, millions of commemorative coins and souvenirs, and thousands of street parties.
One contemporary parliamentary record shows relatively small individual government expenditures being discussed openly — for example, a Jubilee fountain at Westminster costing about £1,500.
Historians generally describe the 1977 Jubilee as far less expensive than modern royal celebrations because:
Some retrospective estimates place the overall public-sector cost in the low tens of millions of pounds in 1977 money, though these are not official audited totals. Adjusted for inflation, that would roughly equate to perhaps £100–£200 million today depending on the method used.
So the short answer is:
Mr_meowton@reddit (OP)
We can all ask chat gpt, a thing famous for misinformation. There’s a reason I asked real people delete this
DaveL16@reddit
Christ I was only trying to help. Maybe get off your high horse and stop making demands?
Mr_meowton@reddit (OP)
Just don’t like ai, I appreciate it but I didn’t want to ask ChatGPT otherwise I would’ve but no point in arguing with ai bros
neilm1000@reddit
How are you quantifying 'cost', OP? Central government spending or something else?
Mr_meowton@reddit (OP)
Central government
neilm1000@reddit
FOI request but I'm not which department. DCMS didn't exist at the time, and I'm not sure which department overall responsibility would have fallen on. Home Office most likely as I think that's where Minister for the Arts was at the time (Jack Donaldson was the relevant minister) but it might have been coordinated by the Cabinet Office.
So most likely you could approach HM Treasury and request the information on how much was budgeted but they may not have it still, and they may point you to the National Archives.
PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
This feels like something you should make a Freedom of Information request about, albeit I'm not sure who to - maybe the Treasury? They may reject it on the basis that calculating it in net terms (rather than gross) would take too much resource.
neilm1000@reddit
And they might not have the data either, loads of stuff from the 70s has been lost and what is available is probably at Kew anyway.
PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
Oh gosh yeah I hadn't even clocked they were asking about the silver jubilee! Good luck!
Mr_meowton@reddit (OP)
Yea I don’t think I’ll ever find out based on the answers from other comments but worth a try
Musicman1972@reddit
No idea but I'd look through the ITN archive videos on YouTube and see if any of those discussed it at the time. There will also be BBC archive films from the time.
The world was different then though. People were more likely to just enjoy it, than demand to know what it cost like they would now, so there's a chance no-one of those contemporary films even mention cost.
I'm sure the British library has every newspaper so you could also research papers at the time.
Mr_meowton@reddit (OP)
Yea I did but since it was 1970s there’s not much on it
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