Queen Elizabeth left Buckingham Palace for the last time on Wednesday, her coffin being carried by horse-drawn carriage and followed by grieving family members on the short drive to the Houses of Parliament, where the monarch will lie until her funeral early next week.
The solemn procession, complete with artillery salutes every minute, was intended to mark the Queen’s 70-year tenure as Head of State as national mourning shifts to the British capital’s grand boulevards and historic landmarks.
King Charles, his sons Prince William and Harry and other members of the royal family walked behind the gun carriage.
Thousands of people who had waited for hours along the Mall in front of the Palace and other places to line the route held up phones and cameras and some wiped away tears as the solemn procession passed. Applause erupted as they walked through Horse Guards Parade.
The coffin was draped in the royal standard and topped with the Imperial State Crown, adorned with nearly 3,000 diamonds, and a bouquet of flowers and plants, including pines from the Balmoral Estate, where Elizabeth died last week.
An escort of two officers and 32 soldiers from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in red uniforms and bearskin hats walked on either side of the gun car.
Big Ben rang, a gun salute boomed from Hyde Park and the martial sounds of a military band accompanied the procession.
The 38-minute procession ended in Parliament’s historic Westminster Hall just after 3pm local time. Eight pallbearers carried the oak and lead-lined coffin into Westminster Hall and placed it on a raised platform known as a catafalque.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby held a brief service in the hall attended by members of the royal family, British Prime Minister Liz Truss and others.
“Do not be afraid of your heart: you believe in God, believe in me too. There are many mansions in my father’s house: if it were not so, I would have told you so,” Welby said, reading from the book of John.
Thousands more stood or sat in lines on the banks of the Thames waiting for their turn ahead of the Queen’s state funeral on Monday. They were warned they might have to wait for hours – officials have provided infrastructure for a 10-mile (16-kilometer) line – but were given numbered wristbands so they can take meal and toilet breaks without losing their place in line.
CLOCK | Unprecedented Security Challenges for a Royal Funeral:
Security preparations for the Queen’s funeral on Monday are on a scale unseen even in London because of the huge crowd and the concentration of world leaders in the same room, says former military intelligence officer Philip Ingram.
When they reach Parliament, mourners have to go through airport-style security. Prohibited items include liquids, spray paint, knives, firecrackers, flowers, candles, stuffed animals, and “advertising or marketing messages.”
Shortly after 5 p.m. local time, the first citizens were allowed to walk past the coffin. They moved in two lines, one on each side of the coffin.
Many were in tears as they approached the coffin. Some doffed their hats and one curtsied.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to happen over the next four days.
Major General Christopher Ghika of the Budget Department, who organized the ceremonial aspects of the Queen’s funeral, said it was a sad day but “it is our last opportunity to do our duty to the Queen and it is our first opportunity to do so.” do the king, and that makes us all very proud.”
London’s Heathrow Airport halted flights to prevent planes from disrupting the procession.
The airport said in a statement the changes would “ensure calm over central London as the ceremonial procession moves from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall”.
The troops involved in the procession have been preparing since the Queen’s death on September 8 at the age of 96. Likewise the horses of the Royal Horse Artillery of the King’s Troop.
Sergeant Tom Jenks of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery said the horses had undergone special training, including how to deal with crying mourners, as well as flowers and flags being thrown into the street as the procession passed.
thousands in Scotland
Crowds have lined the path of the Queen’s coffin whenever it has been moved on its long journey from Scotland back to London.
Thousands braved a typical London drizzle on Tuesday night as the state hearse pulled in slowly from a military airfield into the heart of London, with courtesy lights illuminating the flag-bedecked coffin of the sovereign.
Geoff Colgan, a taxi driver who took the day off to witness the event, stood stunned in the moments after the Queen’s coffin rolled by.
“It’s one of those things that you know was going to happen but when it happens you can’t believe it,” he said, holding his toddler.
Earlier in Edinburgh, some 33,000 people walked in silent respect at her coffin, which had been lying in St Giles’ Cathedral for 24 hours.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to do the same in London as the Queen rests for four days at Westminster Hall ahead of her state funeral on Monday.
CLOCK | “Your heart begins to beat”: High emotions when sightseeing in Edinburgh:
The lineup to spend just a few moments in silence next to Queen Elizabeth’s coffin stretched for miles across Edinburgh, but those who made it described having a spiritual, even surreal, experience in it.
The Hall is where Guy Fawkes and Charles I were tried, where kings and queens hosted sumptuous medieval banquets and where Queen Elizabeth was given ceremonial addresses during her Silver, Gold and Diamond Jubilees.
Chris Bond, from Truro in south-west England, was among those queuing on the banks of the River Thames. In 2002 he also took part in the laying out of the Queen’s mother.
“Obviously it’s quite difficult to queue all day, but when you walk through those doors into Westminster Hall, this wonderful historic building, there was a great sense of stillness and you were told to take your time take it as you like, and that’s just amazing,” he said.
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