The last stretch to Westminster Hall increases the long wait by over five hours
“We’ll be with the Queen in an hour!” the retired George shouted to his neighbors in line in Elizabeth II’s wake. The group walked along the south bank of the Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, and the calculation of the time seemed logical. They had been moving at a good pace for two hours from their first match point, near London Bridge and about four kilometers from the burning chapel, according to the official social media queue follower. They had only a short distance to reach the target. But the illusion of being a direct witness to a historical episode with an international echo led to a situation of “torture”, according to the British subject of German descent.
The final distance from Westminster Bridge to the Parliamentary Palace where the monarch has rested since yesterday, passing through the Covid victims wall before crossing the Thames, takes less than half an hour on a normal day. George and his new friends from the royal wake had taken five hours to cover it the previous night. They blame the zigzag security system operating in the last 500 meters of the runway. The repetitive path of reciprocating pedestrians extends through the gardens of the Victoria Tower, adjacent to the entrance to the House of Lords. “It took forever from bridge to bridge, but the zigzagging was torture. You arrive tired and the zigzag chain is annoying”, the pensioner confesses.
Exhausted, but with help in sight. Many of the 500 portable toilets have been installed in the gardens, which cover the route of fifteen or more kilometers of queue until early Monday morning. Crews of the 779 official controllers plus 170 volunteers from the Samaritans, the Scouts and other organizations are also in attendance. Some and others provide assistance to walkers or provide information on the appropriate conduct and safety rules for entering the burning chapel.
Some 200,000 people said goodbye to Queen Mother Elizabeth in 2002 in Westminster. More than 300,000 people joined the river of condolences for the sudden death of George VI in 1952, ushering in the second Elizabethan reign in British history. According to various estimates, between 350,000 and 750,000 will visit the funeral chapel of the same historic Westminster Hall this week. The enclosure will be closed to the public at 6:30 am (7:30 am peninsula time) on Monday, when preparations begin to move the coffin to Westminster Abbey, where funeral rites will take place.
Upon arrival in London, the guests of honor are given the opportunity to say goodbye to the Queen. Meanwhile, the constant trickle of politicians, officials and parliamentary assistants, who “skip the line” to see the coffin on which the monarch’s imperial crown is worn, is beginning to make some nervous, according to “The Times” and other media outlets. The ‘VIPs’ usually parade along a line parallel to that of the crowd, although they inevitably cause certain delays or even halts in the river’s flow of citizens eager to bid farewell to their queen.
Carlos III will join the vigil tomorrow afternoon. He is joined by his sister Ana and his brothers, Andrés and Eduardo, who have displayed a facade of unity since the matriarch’s death eight days ago. Elizabeth II’s children will stand guard around her catafalque, occupying the position of the king’s bodyguard and other military bodies, taking turns every six hours to keep constant and continuous surveillance of the monarch’s remains.
Elizabeth II will lie next to her husband, Prince Philip of Edinburgh, in the Royal Chapel of Windsor that the late monarch had built in the memory of her father, George VI, in the 1960s. The funeral marks the end of the longest chapter in the history of the British monarchy and culminates in ten days of national mourning and international commotion, culminating in the state funeral, which will take place Monday at Westminster Abbey. .
That night, the Queen’s coffin will rest in the royal crypt of the Church of Saint George, where her late husband has been resting since April 2021. The couple’s remains will later be transferred to King George VI’s chapel. In this sacred outbuilding, Elizabeth II’s parents are buried and the ashes of her sister, Margarita, are interred.
The funeral will take place in family privacy, after listening to prayers with members and officials of the royal houses and receiving the blessing of the dean of the chapel. The state ceremony, attended by the King and Queen of Spain and nearly half a thousand foreign dignitaries, will take place in the morning at the main London temple of the Anglican Church.
The funeral procession will carry the monarch’s coffin, with its distinctive regalia and imperial crown, in procession from the Houses of Parliament in Westminster to nearby Westminster Abbey, where the funeral will begin at 11am local time. Two minutes of silence, followed by the British national anthem, mark the end of the religious service, during which the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, will intervene and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will deliver the sermon.
King Carlos, including his brothers and sons, will regroup and walk behind the remains through the political and tourist center of the capital. The procession will march to the sound of military bands through The Mall and through Buckingham Palace to stop under Wellington Arch on the south corner of Hyde Park. From there, the coffin is transported by road to Windsor Castle, the residence and final destination of Elizabeth II.
Source: La Verdad
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