Queen Elizabeth II funeral: Lengthy lines as subjects pay respects

People have not been deterred by public announcements that the queue could extend to 14km and the wait could be up to 30 hours.

The public queues on the embankment between Westminster and Lambeth bridges in London on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Queen Elizabeth’s coffin sits high upon a purple covered catafalque, raised even higher on a series of red carpeted steps and underneath the soaring 10th-century hammer beam timber frame in the centre of the medieval Westminster Hall.

Here, lying in state, the late Queen is surrounded not just by the Yeomen of the Tower of London and the Officers of the Household Division, who have 20-minute shifts guarding her, but by her people: many thousands who have already walked past in quiet reverence and reflection.

Many stop to bow, some to curtsy, and there is gentle sobbing and occasional gasps of shock. Eyes are wiped with tissues.

The public have queued for hours to be here and entering at the south entrance underneath huge stained glass windows is an extraordinary experience.

Christina and Mick left their Lancashire home at 9pm, joining the queue opposite the Houses of Parliament at 4am, and then waiting 13 hours to see the Queen’s coffin.

Christina said: “She was such a wonderful person, she has done such a lot in the 70 years, a mother and head of state, I just wanted to be here, it’s something I felt I wanted to do.’’

Once inside the hall, hundreds of people walk down a long flight of stairs and then move along the length of the ancient building, but all the while their eyes are firmly fixed on the coffin and the ­Imperial State Crown.

Despite all of movement, there is an atmosphere of stillness and peace.

After joining a line snaking the Thames for more than 5km, some people have waited a day – even missing the sombre step march from Buckingham Palace to the Westminster Hall followed by the Queen’s children, including King Charles, and the grandchildren – to be able to be in the hall and file past the coffin to pay respects.

People have not been deterred by public announcements that the queue could extend to 14km and the wait could be up to 30 hours.

Danny of Essex said the ­moment was very sombre, and he wanted time to reflect on the Queen’s amazing life. “She was our head of state and an amazing woman, 70 years of service is outstanding and I wanted to pay my respects,” he said.

They all tread softly on beige carpet, temporarily protecting the huge blocks of York stone paving inlaid with memorial plaques to Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII’s Lord High Chancellor condemned to death in 1535; and commemorating other lyings-in-state of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 2002, King ­George V in 1936, Winston Churchill in 1965.

In time there will be another block added, that of Queen Elizabeth II, perhaps inlaid underneath the imposing Diamond Jubilee stained glass window above the south doors.

They file down the hall on ­either side, with many elderly and infirm, with walking sticks and in wheelchairs, able to cut into the queue at one side. This is an eclectic crowd.

A mother grips her son, aged about seven and wearing a ­Batman shirt, and turns and ­curtsies as she exits the huge north doors.

Her boy also swivels and ­copies her.

Another mother pushes a very young baby in a pram, who gurgles and waves her arms.

Men come in suits and ties; and in shorts, in jeans. Many women wear black dresses and many clasp their hands together as they shuffle along or hold their coats over their arms.

They dab their eyes. They sniffle. And then they exit.