This week marks forty years since the Queen took a walk through Irvine’s Rivergate.
People lined the streets in their thousands to welcome the Queen and Prince Phillip as residents enjoyed a right Royal occasion on July 3, 1979.
Many waited hours to catch a glimpse of the Queen before being taken on a walk through Irvine’s only years old ‘showpiece shopping mall’.
The four-hour Irvine visit, the first to the town since the Queen’s coronation, included a sightseeing tour of two factories, the Craigie Carpet Company and the Dominion contact lens manufacturing plant before driving through Girdle Toll and Bourtreehill.
They then took a walk through the mall before a visit to the Magnum and the Beach Park.
Crowds lined Townhead and the High Street to welcome the royals as the official car made it’s way past, with wild cheers as they made their way to the Rivergate.
During the walkabout, the Queen remarked to resident Anne McLeod that the mall looked ‘like a nice place to shop’, while Prince Phillip jokingly told cleaner Joseph Conway that he had missed a bit of chewing gum.
Her Majesty showed a keen interest in the range of leisure facilities at the Magnum, also admiring the ‘lovely view’ over the beach park toward the Firth of Clyde and Arran.
Provost Matt Brown, summed up the day as ‘splendid’, adding: “I was really proud of Irvine. It really looked lovely and the people seemed very happy. The town had its best clothes on and enjoyed itself and the Queen shared that enjoyment.”
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