This, then, was the last, layman’s leg of the Queen’s final journey.
Transferred from State Gun Carriage to simple black hearse, she began a final commute familiar to millions, heading home to her beloved husband, Philip, for the last time.
Far from the scarlet and gold of Westminster Abbey, the hushed words of bishops and the gathering of presidents and prime ministers, this was a final journey through real Britain – the only cathedrals the giant warehouses of IKEA and high-rise housing estates.
Heralded by the thrum of distant helicopters, the cortege made its careful way along empty A-roads.
The A4 was filled with an eerie stillness usually only seen when the England team reaches the late stages of a World Cup.
Some of the very first to join the queue to pay their respects by the roadside were three mums, each there in memory of their own mother.
Bhawani Sellvarajah, 58, Rita Gnaniah, 52, and Shajna Nizar, 45, come from the Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths respectively and have been friends for 23 years after meeting at the school gate when their children were young.
“My mum saw the Queen when she visited Chennai in South India in February 1961,” Rita said.
“She never forgot how beautiful the Queen was. Many years later, when she came to visit me in London, she asked me to take her to Buckingham Palace to pay her respects, and she said she could still see her face clearly.”
For Bhawani, lining the route of the cortege was particularly poignant. “My mum, Lakshmi, died exactly three weeks before the Queen,” she said.
“She loved the Queen so much. I am here for them both.”
Shajna was on the phone to family in Australia. “My mum also loved the Queen,” she said.
“But as Muslims we would always line the road for any funeral, whatever the person’s background.”
One of the most impromptu screenings of the day was at the IT Repair Shop in Hounslow.
Umed Samnani, known locally as Jordan, had the funeral on a display laptop screen for those paying their respects along the route of the A4.
As the funeral played from a high shelf and the piercing pipes of the lone piper rang out across the shop, volunteers from the Ismaili Muslim Community were handing out chai tea and pastries to mourners, RAF stewards and police lining the road.
Cadet volunteer Ayden Padaniya, seven, had brought his own tribute to the Queen. “I have coloured in a picture of her and written ‘Thank you, our Queen’ on it,” he said.
His friend and fellow cadet Zeina Rajwani, also seven, said: “The Queen was a very nice lady.”
Hanif Ladhani, 61, proudly showed his Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service badge. “But this badge belongs to the community, not me,” he said.
After the congestion of the capital, this could have been the Queen’s loneliest journey. But Hounslow, home to one of the UK’s largest Indian communities, kept a watch as important as the ones at the Westminster catafalque.
Earlier that morning, walking past the Hounslow mural of the Queen, we found four security guards returning from a night-shift at The Queue – their own personal vigil.
Mahersweri Bandara, 25, Pavan Kumar Padarthi, 25, Ajay Pavuluri, 27, and Srinath Ramisetti, 26, were walking home from the nearby Tube station. “We were proud to do our duty,” said Ajay, who had been on
shift at the lying-in-state queues, on and off, since last Friday.
Mahersweri said: “Looking at all those people sleeping in the cold, I realised what an incredible woman the Queen must be.”
The Hounslow mural – by artist Jignesh and his relative Yash Patel, on the side of the Dosa Hut restaurant on Kingsley Road – has come in for some stick on social media.
Some people have unfairly compared the mural’s likeness to Sir Alex Ferguson. But locals were glad there was a tribute to Her Majesty in the borough.
“We love the Queen. When she died, we thought we had to pay tribute,” Jignesh said.
Back at the A4, Nestle analyst Dhiraj Ladva, 29, watched the cortege pass. “We live with our grandparents, so that’s partly why we feel so emotional,” she said. “I had goosebumps when the moment came.”
Brother Gautam, 27, bowed his head. “After she lost Prince Philip, I think she died of a broken heart,” he said.
A world away from Hounslow, crowds had begun forming around the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea early yesterday morning, along the route of the cortege.
Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, wearing shorts and a hoodie, greeted members of the public and security staff as he walked his dog, Nova, near his £6.6million Kensington mansion.
Just a few miles away at Westminster Abbey, his leadership rival Liz Truss was giving a reading at the Queen’s funeral as the new Prime Minister. He said he would return to pay his respects later.
Venetia Cohen, 32, and her friend Sian Baker, 33, watched the coffin pass on Cromwell Road. Venetia, from West London, said: “It’s been a sad day but also a really lovely day.”
From Hounslow, the cortege passed through Staines, where the Queen opened the Elmsleigh Shopping Centre in 1980. Linda Gamble, 73, from Feltham, remembered the visit well.
“I remember standing against the railings,” she said. “That was really nice. You feel that you want to be part of the big occasion.”
Mourners had gathered at the Elmsleigh to watch the funeral on two big screens, many of them with picnics.
Ulrike Peters, 63, had first seen the Queen in 1965 as a primary school pupil, when she visited Salin in Germany – sealing the two nations’ reconciliation after the Second World War.
“She radiated an amazing charisma,” she said, “but I was disappointed she wasn’t wearing a crown.”
Ulrike had spent 10 hours in the queue to see the Queen lying in state.
“I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else, only Her Majesty,” she said. “I feel very much she is my Queen, even though I’m German.”
As the lights of the police outriders flickered in the distance while the cortege drove along the A4, strings of connection flickered too – from Chennai in India to Staines and Southall in England, Salin in Germany.
In Hounslow at 2.21pm, the sun came out from behind its shroud. The eyes of 58-year-old Pratibha Ladva filled with tears as the cavalcade bearing the Queen passed us.
“She’s had sunshine every step of the way, hasn’t she?” she said, quietly. “It’s been beautiful.”
