The biennial summit of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations took place from Monday, 16 to Friday, 20 April and saw the leaders of 52 nations come together to promote prosperity, democracy and peace.

The summit’s theme, ‘Towards a common future’, focused on building on the strengths of the Commonwealth to ensure this unique organisation is responsive to global challenges and delivers a more prosperous, secure, sustainable and fair future for all its citizens, particularly its young people.

The week-long event began with Commonwealth Forums centred around four topics: business, women, people and youth. Members of the Royal Family attended forums which reflected their various areas of interest, with the QEII seeing visits from Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The QEII Centre also hosted the ‘Welcome to the UK’ reception on the opening day of the summit, which was hosted by the Duke of Cambridge and attended by representatives of the Commonwealth’s 53-member countries.

The event made use of the centre’s entire 32 versatile spaces, even installing a quarter-ton, 10-metre whale called Plasticus on the lawn to demonstrate how much plastic ends up in the ocean every second.