The Wall Street Journal spends a day documenting the line of mourners waiting to attend the late monarch's lying in state.
5:40 AM
A continuously moving line of mourners stretches along the River Thames, as people make their way toward Westminster Hall to pay their respects.
The line snakes from Parliament across the Thames, down the river’s south bank heading east, passing landmarks like the London Eye and Tower Bridge and ending in Bermondsey neighborhood. It is estimated that thousands of people will walk the route.
8:51 AM
Harry Watson from Brighton and Rebekah Marks-Hubbard from Folkestone
“People assume we are together,” Rebekah Marks-Hubbard said, “but we have actually just met. I spotted him in the crowd at the station after getting off my train and I asked him if he knew where the queue was.”
“He was also looking for it, so we decided to find it together. We both changed into our outfits as we were queuing, him in his tartan and I in my side-saddle riding outfit. The queen used to ride side-saddle and I wanted to honor her this way.”
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9:23 AM
Mourners walking along the queue in the South Bank neighborhood.
The government said Friday evening that the expected wait time to see the queen’s coffin was more than 24 hours.
Peter Brown, a street painter from Bath
Mr. Brown has been moving around London to paint the crowds gathered to mark the queen’s death.
“I’m interested in people queueing and doing nothing, rather than the pomp and ceremony. All this kind of reminds me of lockdown, with the streets empty of cars and people just wondering around.”
10:07 AM
Journalists set up near the queue on the Thames’s south bank, opposite the Palace of Westminster.
Margaret McDermott and Charlotte Field, a nurse from First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
Ms. McDermott first saw the queen at an event 30 years ago
“My husband was posted to Germany about 30 years ago. I was eight months pregnant at the time and while we were waiting, I fainted. The soldiers came to help me, but I told them to rush back to work so that they wouldn’t miss the queen.”
Duncan Stewart from Colchester, Essex county
Mr. Stewart is wearing a kilt in the family tartan, the Royal Stewart, as a way to honor the queen and represent family members who couldn’t come to London. He brought a big, tartan-printed bag of snacks.
“I’ve probably overdone it with the snacks. I was anticipating a 12-hour wait, maybe longer. Now we have to figure out how to eat them all before we get there as they won’t let us bring anything in.”
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1:05 PM
The London Eye
Archie Hammond
“I thought standing in a queue for a whole day is very bizarre and also very British, so I wanted to take part as I didn’t have much else to do today.”
Mr. Hammond reading a book on how to quit vaping.
2:12 PM
People receiving water while queueing.
Volunteers, food vendors, security and first-aid workers are all stationed along the queue. There are more than 500 portable toilets along the route.
Sue Cox, from Suffolk county, wears a Platinum Jubilee flag
“I don’t mind how long I have to queue. I’ll do it for 36 hours, or three days if I have to. But it looks like it’ll be six hours. It’s much less than expected. I’ve got my Union Jack colors on.”
Martha Jim, originally from Zimbabwe, now lives in Birmingham
She has been in the U.K. for 25 years.
“I’m resting, I’m really tired. I [started queuing] about four hours ago. We started at Buckingham Palace, crossed the River Thames, then we had to follow the queue until I don’t know where. I should [make it]. How can I surrender now?”
7:20 PM
Tower Bridge. Officials have said the last guest will be let in at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 19.
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7:53 PM
People entering the line to see the queen at Southwark Park. The maximum length the line can reach is about 10 miles, stretching from Westminster to Southwark, with a 3-mile zigzag in Southwark Park.
Peter Saville, Michael Clark, Anna Richards and Henry Watson
They met at Oxford University.
“For British people the monarch is really symbolic, the focal point of our patriotism, just like the flag for Americans," said Mr. Clark. "This is not just about a nice old lady.”
Owen and Bobby Boyd, brothers from London’s Bermondsey neighborhood
They run a stand where they sell tea and coffee to people queuing.
“We’re quite young so we don’t feel that much of a connection with the monarchy and the queen,” Bobby said. “When the queen passed we were on holiday in Turkey. We had a queen when we left and a king when we got back!”
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11:57 PM
An ice-cream truck in London’s South Bank neighborhood
David Xue, Fred Li, Wendy Tan, Macy Ma and Zihan Zhang
All studied together in London
“Everybody is here to celebrate,” said Mr. Li. “However, they all seem to ignore the damage that the British Empire has done to other countries in the world, and that is partly because it is a story that is not properly told here.”
Olly Thorton-Flowers
Mr. Thorton-Flowers used to be part of the Queen’s Royal Lancers, a cavalry regiment of the British Army. He met the queen in 2014.
“I told her I worked in military intelligence and she responded, ‘I didn’t know there was much intelligence in the military!’ ”
4:32 AM
Westminster Hall is open to the public 24 hours a day for the lying-in-state.
Howard Fawcett
Travelled from Durham, northeast England
“It’s quite a strange feeling that somebody was always in the background of a nation’s life, and now she’s not here, so it’s a big gap. She represents all our parents and grandparents at the same time.”
Mourners frequently left in tears after seeing Queen Elizabeth’s coffin in Westminster Hall.
Photographs and video
taken between dawn Sept. 15 and dawn Sept. 16:
Joël van Houdt: slides 1, 2, 4, 6, 19-20, 28-33
Carlotta Cardana: slides 5, 8, 9-16, 21-27
Produced by Margaret Keady