The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will undertake separate engagements in Bristol on 25 February 2005, involving visits to community projects and to Bristol docks, before two joint engagements later in the day at Bristol University and Bristol Temple Meads train station.
The Queen will first visit The Park, an ex-school building now housing a variety of youth development projects and small businesses. Her Majesty will meet students and staff in a variety of classes including cooking, building and computer studies. She will also visit small businesses based in The Park, including Sure Start Early Years Nursery, Urban II, a community programme run by young people to help improve employment prospects and street crime in Bristol, and Fast fix builders. The Queen will also view a short performance by performing arts students before a brief walkabout.
The Duke of Edinburgh is to visit SS Great Britain at Bristol docks. The ship was built by Isambard Brunel and worked for nearly 100 years, travelled over a million miles and came to rest in Bristol, where she now works as an educational resource and national monument for current and future generations. Whilst at the docks, His Royal Highness will be shown the latest redevelopment work on the docks area. He will also visit The Matthew, a replica of the first boat to arrive on the coast of Newfoundland, making its captain John Cabot the unofficial discoverer of America. The Duke launched the replica of the ship in 1997 when the boat followed the same course as John Cabot 500 years previously and sailed across to Newfoundland; both The Duke and The Queen were there to welcome the Matthew on its arrival in Newfoundland, as part of their Royal Tour of Canada later on that year.
The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will then open The Queen's building at Bristol University. The building houses laboratories in which the Royal party will be shown demonstrations of experiments by students and researchers, one of which will involve Bristol University's earthquake shaking table.
The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will then attend a reception and lunch held in The Wills Memorial building at the university before returning to Bristol Temple Meads station where The Queen will unveil a plaque to name a train 'Royal Sovereign.'
