And in the evening the night sky over her Berkshire home will be lit up by a beacon, started by the Queen, the first in a chain of more than 1,000 that will spread across the country and the globe.
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Bruno Peek, LVO, OBE, OPR, Pageantmaster, The Queen’s 90th Birthday Beacons said: “It has been an enormous privilege to be able to organise this incredible community event to celebrate the 90th Birthday of Her Majesty The Queen”.
The queen is spending the day at Windsor Castle, near London, with her family.
The Loughton beacon then was lit at 7.30pm, joining Waltham Abbey and Epping and hundreds of other areas throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Commonwealth.
“As a school we felt it was really important to mark the Queen’s 90th Birthday and it really has been the most fantastic day; we have held our own street party in the playground and each class has planted their own tree to mark the occasion”.
“I’ve had one or two birthday parties over the years but this is one of the best”.
One unusual tribute will see the Houses of Parliament lit up red, white and blue in honour of the Queen’s milestone.
Before Her Majesty lit the beacon, her eldest son, Prince Charles made a short speech in which he led three cheers for The Queen.
The Queen last visited Sunderland in 2012, when she celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.
Sunderland also marked her landmark birthday, by lighting a beacon at Roker’s Cliffe Park this evening.
But she endured her “annus horribilis” in 1992, the year Charles separated from wife Diana, the Duke of York split from Sarah, and the Princess Royal divorced Captain Mark Phillips.
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