Queen Elizabeth II funeral: What happened next after the world stopped

On Monday, the world stood still as royals and foreign leaders descended on London for the Queen’s state funeral. Here’s what happened next.

A lone cloth banner hangs limply from a metal barricade across from Westminster Abbey, with a message handwritten in multi-coloured letters: “RIP Queen Elizabeth.”

It’s one of the very few remaining clues hinting at the massive world event that unfolded in this exact spot just 24 hours earlier.

In fact, I’d been staring at that sign for a large chunk of my own 10-hour stint in the crowd during the Queen’s state funeral on Monday.

London is (almost) back to regular programming. Picture: Bronte Coy

My view – including sign – just 24 hours earlier. Picture: Bronte Coy

Around it, as though it was just a regular Tuesday, Londoners and tourists bustle past, finally free of the extreme restrictions on pedestrians and cars that have enveloped this area (and plenty of others across the city) over the past week.

Barely glancing up, people walk straight past the gate to Westminster Hall – where just yesterday morning, the last queuers were able to shuffle past the late monarch’s coffin lying in State, before she was taken in a royal procession through that passageway and across the road to the Abbey.

The royal procession had passed through here as the city stood still on Monday. Picture: Bronte Coy

During those hours, that spot on the pathway was blocked to the public and the most prime royal viewing location in the world – today, it’s back to being a thoroughfare.

Parliament Square with the Abbey on the left. Picture: Bronte Coy

Already gone are the piles of litter that stacked up as people remained locked in place over several hours – or even overnight. Gone are the many, many signs providing direction to the crowd.

One thing that remains are the seemingly endless metal barricades, but they’re now largely ornamental as people weave in and out of them at their leisure.

The drone of helicopters, the soundtrack to Westminster in recent days as world dignitaries and royals descended on the area, has finally ceased.

Down The Mall toward Buckingham Palace, the area most concentrated with mourners since the night the Queen died, it’s almost back to usual business.

A very significant vibe shift. Picture: Bronte Coy

The hordes of onlookers – and endless security guards and police – have melted away, and in its place is the normal daily tourist contingent the Palace attracts year-round.

A normal-sized crowd of tourists continued to roam through the area. Picture: Bronte Coy

The pomp and ceremony and spectacle may be over, but here, at least, there are still a few major clues at the significance of what has just transpired on this very spot.

Media tents, though now largely redundant and empty, still line the garden in the forecourt.

Barricades continue to block cars from either side.

Those will disappear in the coming hours as the last remnants of the massive infrastructure in place for the Queen’s funeral are packed away.

But what else remains are the flowers and handwritten cards, covering the gates and arranged around trees in the adjacent park, still trickling in with late mourners, who are coming to terms with their feelings of loss.

And that will likely stick around for a while yet.

Originally published as Queen Elizabeth II funeral: What happened next after the world stopped