Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - People from all walks of life came to pay their last respects to Britain's longest-ruling monarch, Qu...
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| Image: Reuters |
After days of processions and rituals as the queen's body was brought to London from Balmoral, Scotland, where she died last Thursday at the age of 96, this was a chance for regular people to take part in a ceremony. As people walked by the flag-covered coffin, many shed tears.
Officials think that about 750,000 people will come to see it before it is taken down at 6:30 a.m. (07:30 GMT) on Monday.
The line went back a few miles along the south bank of the River Thames, past Tower Bridge and a copy of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. As it got closer to Westminster Hall, it crossed Lambeth Bridge. There was a long wait.
Thomas Hughes, who was 20, waited with his brother for almost 14 hours overnight. When they finally got to see the coffin, he said it was a lot to take in.
"You do everything because you want to show respect to this lady," he said. "And I think that when you go through all that, and then the moment you've been waiting for comes, you're just a little bit more emotional." "It's something very strong."
Most of them were British, but some came from other countries. People of all ages were there, from babies being carried by their parents to old soldiers with medals. Many people stopped to bow their heads at the coffin. Some people wiped their eyes.
Some people were there to represent their elderly parents, and others were there to see history and thank a woman who became queen in 1952 and was still holding official government meetings two days before she died.
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth was in the middle of Westminster Hall. It was on a purple catafalque on a red platform. It was covered with the Royal Standard flag and topped with a wreath of flowers and the Imperial State Crown on a cushion.
Soldiers and "Beefeaters," who usually guard the Tower of London in red coats, stood guard with their heads bowed.
Kenneth Taylor, 72, from Reading in central England, was one of the first people inside. He had come with a neighbour and spent the night in a tent in the line.
Taylor said that he felt sad when he saw the queen lying in state. He said this with tears in his eyes. "My throat got tight."
"You know, we've lost a very important person. Her work for this country was very steady and did not change. And I would probably call her the queen of all queens."
Danielle Harbron, 49, from Derbyshire, said, "I thought I'd walk through crying and come out crying on the other side, but it was just a really, really strange feeling."
In a solemn procession on Wednesday afternoon, soldiers in scarlet ceremonial uniforms carried the casket from Buckingham Palace to the hall on a gun carriage.
King Charles, his sons Princes William and Harry, and other high-ranking royals walked behind. Despite their differences, the two princes were united in grief. Thursday is Harry's 38th birthday.
William and his wife Kate will go to the royal home in Sandringham, which is in eastern England, on Thursday to look at the flowers that people have left there as tributes.
On the day of the queen's funeral, there will be a full-scale procession that is likely to be one of the largest the country has ever seen. This will be a huge security challenge.
Royalty, presidents, and other world leaders are expected to show up, but some countries, like Russia, Afghanistan, and Syria, did not get an invitation.
The White House said that U.S. President Joe Biden, who has said he will be there, spoke to the new king on Wednesday and told him how much the American people love the Queen.
