Last night, thousands of well-wishers lined the streets of central London and gathered outside Buckingham Palace as the Queen made her final journey home.
Rain drizzled atmospherically onto the black hearse which displayed the late monarch’s coffin draped in a Royal Standard as mourners quietly paid their respects. Her daughter, Princess Anne had accompanied her mother on her final journey to London and looked visibly distraught as her mother passed into the gates of the Palace for the last time.
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The Queen spent her final night at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. Her body was placed in the Bow Room. Today, her coffin, draped in the Royal Standard and topped with her crown, was ceremonially paraded down the Mall to Westminster Hall via a horse-drawn gun carriage.
She will lie in state at Westminster Hall until Monday when the state funeral will commence.
The Mall, which is a long, straight road that stretches away from the Palace was the last iconic site of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June, which saw hundreds of thousands celebrating her 70 years on the throne.
Her grieving family gathered at the Palace this afternoon as her son and now monarch, King Charles along with his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry solemnly marched behind Her Majesty’s coffin, just as they did at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997.
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Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin leaves Buckingham Palace for the final time as the procession to Westminster Hall begins.
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Princess Anne, her son Peter Phillips and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence along with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward also took the sad walk behind the Queen’s casket, while Camilla, Kate, Meghan, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex traveled down the Mall by car.
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of London at just after 2 pm local time, as they gather to pay their respects to Her Majesty, who referred to herself as their “servant” during her Platinum Jubilee in June. Some could be seen crying as her coffin past as they reminisced about her life and what she meant to them, despite most having never met her.
The march to Westminster will take around 38 minutes and will proceed through the Queen’s Gardens, The Mall, orse Guards Parade and Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square, and New Palace Yard.
As the Queen’s casket and the procession arrive at Westminster Hall, a 20-minute service led by the Archbishop of Canterbury will commence, and the public will be allowed to file past her casket from 5 pm today to pay their final respects.
The UK government has said that it expects lines to see the Queen laying in state will last “many hours, possibly overnight”. Infrastructure 10 miles in length has been constructed to deal with the huge numbers expected, and the line is already said to be around 5 miles long.
The Queen will be buried within the King George VI Memorial Chapel in Windsor Castle, around 22 miles from Buckingham Palace, next to her father, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s Queen Mother, and her sister, Princess Margaret.
Her Majesty will not be buried with her crown or any state jewels, but she will wear her gold wedding band and a single-strand pearl necklace.