325,000 to pay respects as the Queen lies in state
Wellwishers warned they’ll face queues lasting hours
UP to 325,000 mourners will pay their respects to the Queen this week when her coffin is brought to the Palace of Westminster.
Her body will lie in state at Westminster Hall from 5pm on Wednesday until 6.30am on the morning of her funeral on September 19.
Officials warned last night that mourners may have to queue ‘for many hours, possibly overnight’.
The Westminster lying in state will come after the public today have their first chance to visit the closed oak coffin which will be at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh for 24 hours.
Members of the public who pay their respects at Westminster will be subject to strict security checks and restrictions, including a ban on large bags, flowers and photos.
Officials are preparing for 3,000 people an hour to file past the coffin, meaning around 325,000 mourners in total, including other royals, foreign dignitaries and diplomats. Some 200,000 people visited Westminster Hall to pay respects to the Queen Mother in 2002.
A Government source said: ‘It is like trying to organise something on a similar scale to the London Olympics in a matter of days.’
Further details of where to queue will be released tomorrow. Westminster Hall will be open 24 hours a day. The coffin will be draped in the Royal Standard and adorned with the Imperial State Crown – worn by the Queen after her coronation – with sceptre, orb and flowers from royal gardens.
Tens of thousands of well-wishers are expected to line the streets as it makes a journey from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. The procession will travel via The Mall, Horse Guards, Whitehall and Parliament Square. It will be screened live in Hyde Park, with a viewing area opening at 11am on Wednesday. King Charles, the Queen Consort and other members of the Royal Family will witness the arrival of the coffin. Units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, the Household Division, or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London will guard the coffin day and night.
It was yesterday carried by hearse in a procession from Balmoral Castle to Edinburgh. This evening King Charles and his brothers will form a guard of honour around the coffin at the four corners of a raised platform known as a catafalque.
In a moving tribute known as the Vigil Of The Princes, they will take the places of guardsmen from the Royal Company of Archers for about an hour. Wearing ceremonial uniform, each will face outwards with their heads bowed in respect. Charles and other senior royals performed the tradition when the Queen Mother died.
They will do so again when the Queen reaches the Palace of Westminster this week. Because the monarch died in Scotland, an additional lying-in-state in Edinburgh was arranged.
Yesterday the coffin arrived at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Today King Charles and the Queen Consort will fly into the Scottish capital and travel to the palace to inspect a guard of honour. At 2.35pm, Charles and Camilla will join a procession to St Giles’ Cathedral 1,200 yards away.
Charles and other royals will walk behind the hearse as it makes its way along the Royal Mile.
At the cathedral, the Crown of Scotland will be placed upon the coffin. After a service, members of the public will be allowed to file past to pay their respects.
At 7.20pm the King and his brothers will perform the Vigil of The Princes. The coffin is expected to be flown to London tomorrow evening, with Princess Anne accompanying her mother.
On arrival at RAF Northolt in west London at 6.55pm, the coffin will be transferred to the State Hearse. At Buckingham Palace, a guard of honour will receive the coffin. A bearer party of the Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, will carry it to
‘Like organising the Olympics in days’
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the Bow Room where it will be placed on trestles, witnessed by King Charles and the Queen Consort. Chaplains to the King will keep watch over the coffin.
Lying-in-state is an honour given to the sovereign as head of state, consorts and some former Prime Ministers, including Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.