The sorrowful silence of Britain’s deserted streets yesterday told the story of a nation united in grief.
Normally thronged with people and traffic, town and city centres presented a haunting, almost eerie atmosphere as Her Majesty was laid to rest.
Mourners watched from home, crammed into pubs, gathered in front of huge city centre screens and in local cinemas to say “thank you Ma’am for everything”.
In Manchester, it was set to be a typical Mancunian send off after hours of rain.
But as the city bowed its head to honour the late Queen, the clouds parted - and for a brief time a brilliant, September sun shone through.
Nus Khan, 54, a social worker from Bolton, had come prepared too, with a bag full of cosy blankets: “She spent her whole life serving us so the least we can do is give her a few hours.
“It’s been such a sad time - I’ve been crying every day. She was everybody’s - she belonged to all of us.
“I could have watched it at home but it wouldn’t have been the same. I knew I wanted to be here, in Manchester.”
A short walk away, inside the city’s cathedral - visited by the queen in her last trip to Manchester last summer - almost 1,000 people sat, spellbound by the spectacle.
Lisa Duffy, 53, a hairdresser from Levenshulme, dressed in a Union Jack dress and tights and sporting brightly dyed hair and a chain of safety pins through her nose she said the queen was a strong, amazing woman.
“I’m a punk,” she explained, “and I love the queen too. She was a strong, powerful woman and I wanted to look my best for her today. This is her last goodbye.”
The streets of Liverpool were deserted as people crammed into pubs and local cinemas to watch the funeral.
In the William Gladstone pub, just a stones throw from the Cavern Club - closed all day as a Mark of respect - every table was occupied as the service was broadcast on all seven of the venue’s TV screens.
A nearby pub worker Stanley Kelly said: “I have not seen the place this quiet since John Lennon got shot.
“Most of the people I have seen have been overseas tourists. All the regulars are home watching it or watching it in the pubs or cinemas.
“...When Liverpool goes quiet you know something has happened.”
Brummies packed into Birmingham’s Centenary Square sitting on patio chairs and wrapped up against the cold.
Mum-of-three Julie Taylor, 45, from Edgbaston, said: “I wasn’t able to travel to London to pay my respects so I wanted to do something more than just watch the funeral on TV.
“Covid kept us all locked in our homes and the Queen was a uniting figure for us all.
“I think the best tribute this country can pay her is to show unity together now she is no longer here to see over us.”
Graeme Pape, 30, from Solihull, West Mids., said: “She embodies the country’s ideals which, as far as I am concerned, are kindness, compassion and strength.
“For me her death represents the death of everyone I have ever lost who was close to me and that is why I have come here today to pay my respects.”
The Black Garter in central Newcastle opened at 9am to give drinkers a chance to raise a glass to the Queen while watching the funeral.
Old pals Ronald Sole, 71, Michael Sheeran, 75, John Sullivan, 75, and Jimmy Wilson, 59, raised a pint of bitter in memory of the Queen.
Michael, a former shipyard crane driver, said: “The whole world is watching today and it’s a spectacle this country can be proud of.
“The whole thing has been like clockwork and it’s a very fitting tribute to a fantastic monarch who has been there for the country all these years.
“I was five years old on the day of her coronation and it’s a day I’ve remembered all my life, This will be another one.”
Mum Tammy Weston, 44, wept as the camera panned onto the grief-stricken face of the King.
She said: “He’s been so dignified through all this, to do all those engagements and ceremonies while grieving for his mother must have been so hard, he’s been amazing and I think he’ll be a great king.”
Her pal Kelly Stephenson, 32, said: “I’m so glad the Queen got to see the Platinum Jubilee and how much people cared and respected her, she died knowing the British people loved her.”
Former Royal Fusilier Karl Slater, 45, travelled from Meadow Well, North Shields to watch the service on the big screen in the city centre, with his son Harley, eight, who wore his cubs’ outfit.
Mr Slater, wearing a beret with his fusilier’s hackle, said the Queen was “the best boss I ever had.”
Mourners also braved the rain to Millennium Square, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Former soldier Paul Bradford, 80, served in Two Para for 18 years and said: ”I have come here to pay my respects to my Queen, she was my boss for 18 years, and a great boss too.
“Coming here is the least I can do, to pay my respects to my boss.”
John Whitehouse, 72, who served with the Coldstream Guards for 24 years and did six tours of Northern Ireland, said: ”I have come here because I couldn’t get down to London.
“Today I feel pride and sadness. Pride watching my brothers doing a fantastic job on parade.
"My mate, the garrison sergeant major down there has helped organise what we are watching.”
In Scotland, crowds flocked to the Queen’s official Scottish residence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, to pay their respects and students watched in their boarding house, Windmill Lodge, at Gordonstoun School, Moray, where King Charles III once boarded.
While in Nottingham, at Binks Yard, the newly opened entertainment venue, Caroline Spray, 45, an NHS worker, from Keyworth in Nottinghamshire, said: “The Queen was different to other royalists, she wasn’t political, there was nothing controversial about her. !
"She was always a constant...She was the nation’s grandmother.”
Around 200 people watched the service in silence on a big screen outside Sheffield Cathedral - many bringing camping chairs.
About the same number watched the ceremony inside the cathedral itself.
Those inside, filed past a Paddington Bear and a cup of tea on a table next to a picture of the Queen, with a sign saying “thank you ma’am for everything”.
