Celebrity historian David Starkey is guest-curator of an extraordinary exhibition celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames at the National Maritime Museum includes hundreds of diverse objects which illustrate the royal history of London’s great river.

People will be able to see Bazalgette’s original contract drawings for the construction of the Thames embankment, Anne Boleyn’s personal music book, a remarkable collection of paintings by Canaletto, and a stuffed swan just to name a few.

Canaletto’s famous view of the river filled with boats for the Lord Mayor’s Day, cited as an inspiration for the Diamond Jubilee Pageant, is being loaned from the Lobkowicz Collections in Prague – the first time the family have allowed the painting to leave the country since it was delivered to them direct from the artist’s studio in 1752.

David Starkey, guest-curator of this exceptional display, said: “This exhibition, which brings to life the extraordinary and varied history of the Thames as Britain’s royal river and London's ‘grandest street’, is a feast for the eyes and all the senses.

“It evokes the sights, sounds and even the smells of half a millennium of royal river pageantry and popular celebration.

“But, most importantly and originally, Royal River also shows how the grandest royal river pageants have always been used to celebrate the coronation and inauguration of Tudor and Stuart Queens.

“What more appropriate way of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of The Queen, who will herself, at the climax of the celebrations, lead another grand royal river pageant?”

The exhibition comprises nearly 400 objects, including 50 objects generously lent by Her Majesty the Queen from the Royal Collection and over 250 items on loan from museums, galleries and private collections across Europe and America, many of which have never been on public display before.

It also draws on an array of objects from the National Maritime Museum’s own pre-eminent collections.

The exhibition runs until September 9 and is open every day between 10am and 5pm.

Admission is £11, £9 for concessions and £24.50 for families.