Queues to close today as 350,000 pay respects
The huge queue to see the Queen lying in state is expected to close this afternoon to allow the thousands already waiting time to see the monarch.
In the city’s Southwark Park, 2,000 people were joining the queue every hour. The waiting time peaked at almost 17 hours yesterday, but by 4pm it had dropped to 13 hours. It has been suggested that the doors of Westminster Hall, where the Queen’s coffin lies, will close at 6.30am tomorrow, when an estimated 350,000 people will have passed
through. The long waits and plummeting temperatures failed to deter tens of thousands of mourners yesterday, with people from as far as Texas travelling to London to stand in line for their turn to pay their respects.
Among those joining the queue at lunchtime was Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes, who was at an awards ceremony on Friday night in Liverpool but felt compelled to come to London to pay her respects.
She said: “In my head I was like, ‘I have to join this queue’ so I stopped all my plans for this weekend and here I am. I got my damehood from the Queen in 2005 for services to sport so that will always hold good memories. But the ones which really stand out are
the ones that are really informal – at races where I break protocol and say to the Queen, ‘you look lovely ma’am’ and she says, ‘thank you Dame Kelly’.
“I have been watching the live feed and I was just overwhelmed. People are feeling this warmth, connecting with this moment and, for me, yes, it will be a sombre occasion but it makes me happy I am here in this queue.”
Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, who was a classmate and friend of Princess Diana, also joined the main queue to pay tribute to the Queen.
But TV presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were criticised after reportedly skipping the queue by joining a separate line to film a segment for This Morning. One of the oldest people to visit Westminster Hall was 98-year-old Ernest Brooks, from Tottenham, London. The military veteran said: “I shall remember this day. I’ll never forget it. I served the Queen in the Army so I wanted to pay my respects.”
He was accompanied by his granddaughter Carol Ouchrif, a paediatric nurse who finished a night shift in a children’s hospital before joining the queue. She said: “It’s amazing, so touching. Memories I’m going to treasure with him because he won’t be here forever.”
Claire Smart, 47, travelled to the capital from Teesside to pay her respects and to “apologise for all the times as a little girl I rolled my eyes having to listen to the Queen”. She added: “I always wanted to curtsy in front of the Queen when she was alive, and sort of felt it was important to come and do it now.”
Also in the queue were six women who travelled from Houston, Texas. One said: “We’ve always loved the Queen, so when we heard she was sick we made plans to come – and here we are, just wanted to pay our respects.”
London Ambulance Service said it treated 710 people queueing to view the Queen’s coffin between Wednesday and midnight on Friday, when the temperature fell to 5C.
There were concerns the number could rise overnight, with temperatures set to drop again.