Public viewing for Queen Elizabeth begins at Westminster Hall
Queen Elizabeth left Buckingham Palace for the last time on Wednesday, her coffin carried on a horse-drawn carriage and saluted by cannons and the tolling of Big Ben, in a solemn procession through the flag-draped, crowd-lined streets of London to Westminster Hall. There, Britain’s longest-serving monarch will lie in state for the world to mourn.
Her son, King Charles, and his siblings and sons marched behind the coffin, which was topped by a wreath of white roses and her crown resting on a purple velvet pillow.
The Queen will lie in state for four days until her funeral Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to file past. Eight pallbearers carried the oak and lead-lined coffin into Westminster Hall, placing it on a raised platform known as a catafalque.
Shortly after 5 p.m. local time, members of the public were allowed to file past the coffin, in the centre of the vast medieval hall. People flowed in two lines in a silent river of humanity.
They moved down steps under the hall’s great stained-glass window, then past the coffin at a steady pace. There were parents with children, couples hand in hand, veterans with medals clinking on navy blue blazers, lawmakers and members of the House of Lords.
Some wore black or suits and ties, others jeans and sneakers. They had waited hours for a journey past the coffin that lasted only a few minutes.
Many were in tears as they approached the casket. Some doffed their hats and one curtseyed. One fell to one knee and blew a kiss.
The military procession from Buckingham Palace was designed to underscore the Queen’s seven decades as head of state as the national mourning process shifted to the grand boulevards and historic landmarks of the U.K. capital.
Thousands of people who had waited for hours along The Mall outside the palace and other locations along the route held up phones and cameras, and some wiped away tears, as the procession passed. Applause broke out as it went through Horse Guards Parade. Thousands more sat in nearby Hyde Park watching on large screens.
The coffin was draped in the Royal Standard and topped with the Imperial State Crown — adorned with almost 3,000 diamonds — and a bouquet of flowers and plants including pine from the Balmoral Estate, where Elizabeth died last week at the age of 96.
Two officers and 32 troops from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in red uniforms and bearskin hats walked on either side of the gun carriage.
The 38-minute procession ended at Westminster Hall, where Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led a short service attended by Charles and other royals.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you,” Welby said, reading from the Book of John.
After a short service, the captain of The Queen’s Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, assisted by a senior sergeant, laid the Royal Standard of the regiment on the steps of the catafalque.
Four officers from the Household Cavalry — two from the Life Guards and two from the Blues Royals — began the first vigil around the coffin, taking their places at the corner and bowing their heads.
Thousands had queued up along the banks of the River Thames, waiting to enter the hall and pay their respects.
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The crowds are the latest manifestation of the nationwide outpouring of grief and respect for the only monarch most Britons have ever known after her 70 years on the throne.
Esther Ravenor, a Kenyan who lives in the U.K., said she was humbled as she watched the procession.
“I love the Queen, I love the Royal Family, and you know, I had to be here,” she said. “She is a true role model. She loved us all, all of us. Especially someone like me, a migrant woman coming to the U.K. 30 years ago, I was allowed to be here and to be free and safe, so I really honour her. She was a big part of my life.”
Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika of the Household division, who organized the ceremonial aspects of the Queen’s funeral, said it was “our last opportunity to do our duty for the Queen and it’s our first opportunity to do it for the King, and that makes us all very proud.”
Troops involved in the procession had been preparing since the Queen died. So had the horses of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
Sgt. Tom Jenks, from the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, said the horses were specially trained, including how to handle weeping mourners, as well as flowers and flags being tossed in front of the procession.
London’s Heathrow Airport temporarily halted flights, saying it would “ensure silence over central London as the ceremonial procession moves from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.”
Thousands at Scotland viewing
Crowds have lined the route of the Queen’s coffin whenever it has been moved in its long journey from Scotland to London.
On Tuesday night, thousands braved a typical London drizzle as the state hearse, with interior lights illuminating the casket, drove slowly from a military air base into the heart of London.
Earlier, in Edinburgh, some 33,000 people filed in silent respect past her coffin as it lay for 24 hours at St. Giles’ Cathedral.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to visit the 900-year-old Westminster Hall, the oldest building in Parliament, for four days before her state funeral on Monday. By Wednesday afternoon, the line snaking along the banks of the River Thames was nearly five kilometres long, according to a government tracker.
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The hall is where Guy Fawkes and Charles I were tried, where kings and queens hosted magnificent medieval banquets and where ceremonial addresses were presented to Queen Elizabeth during her silver, golden and diamond jubilees.
