The queue to reach the Queen’s coffin took some mourners more than nine hours to complete but many said the long wait was worth it. At one point during the first full day of Queen Elizabeth II lying in state in Westminster Hall volunteers along the route, which hugged the south banks of the River Thames, said there could be another 10 to 12 hours to go from Tower Bridge.
Mourners said there was “breath-taking” serenity awaiting them in Westminster Hall where “you could hear a pin drop” in the silence. As of 11.30pm on Thursday, the queue was 4.9 miles long, drifting back as far as Southwark Park in Bermondsey, with an estimated waiting time of nine hours.
A little over two hours later, the waiting time had jumped to 14 hours, although the mileage of the queue remained the same. Nurse Melanie Pickman, 50, left her home in Swansea at 11am to join the back of the queue just before 3pm.
