Outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, the Union Jack flew at half-mast and hundreds of bouquets lay along the base of the railings. Many carried handwritten notes thanking the Queen for 70 years of service. Beside one bunch of flowers someone had left a portrait of Paddington Bear, who had taken tea with her in a Platinum Jubilee video that went viral earlier in the year.
The crowd began gathering Thursday morning, after word spread that she was under medical supervision and her family was heading for Balmoral. By Friday thousands were queuing. Office workers, students, multi-generational families, recent immigrants and tourists whose holidays happened to overlap with her death stood together.
Gali Franklin, 47, who grew up on a kibbutz in Israel, wrote her card in Hebrew. “She represented all of us. All colours and mixed ages, nations,” she told CBC. “It brings us together.”
Linda Mauer, 55, grew up in Hong Kong, lives in Seattle and was in London on holiday. She bowed her head, said a prayer and made the sign of the cross. “I always grew up with the Queen, and she felt very close to me,” Mauer said.
Henry Jan, 21, came in a three-piece suit and bowler hat. He is from China, studies at Oxford and had taken a train down that morning to lay flowers. “When there are crises and wars and when politicians come and go, she’s always been there,” he said.
Prime Minister Liz Truss told the Commons the Queen was “the rock on which modern Britain was built.”
Edinburgh first
In Scotland the coffin lay for 24 hours in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. Around 33,000 people paid their respects in that time.
The line at Westminster Hall
London was a much bigger undertaking. On Wednesday at 5pm, Westminster Hall opened to the public and the first mourners filed past the coffin. A tracker run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport put the queue at about 2.9 miles at that hour, stretching beyond London Bridge. The line was built to reach 10 miles. Officials could not give a precise figure for how many would come, but they expected around 750,000.
Some people slept on the pavement in the rain to hold their place. Kenneth Taylor, 72, spent the night in a tent to be among the first inside. “We’ve lost someone special,” he said, tearful. “Her service to this country was really steadfast and unswerving. And she’s probably what I would call the queen of queens.”
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, walked the line and spoke to people in it. “We are honoring two great British traditions, loving the queen and loving a queue,” he said.
Mourners were given numbered, coloured wristbands so they could step out briefly for the toilet, food or a drink. More than 1,000 stewards, volunteers, marshals and police officers lined the route, and a separate accessible route ran from Tate Britain. The queue would be shut early if the infrastructure filled. The lying in state had to finish by 6.30am on Monday, the morning of the funeral.
Joyce Dawson, 54, from Middlesbrough, had never seen London. She saw the first people in the queue on TV on Tuesday evening, texted her daughter, and the two caught a midnight coach. They joined the line at about 8am. Kush Sonigra, a Londoner, spent his 24th birthday there and expected to postpone the family dinner to the weekend.
Sources
- As the U.K. mourns the Queen, thousands gather at Buckingham Palace | CBC News
- 'Loving a queue': Thousands wait in line to pay respects to queen
- Thousands paying last respects to Queen as Westminster Hall opens to public
