Yes, they could have issued timed tickets, but something would have been missing if you just turned up at 10:15am for your timed entry as if it was just a museum. It’s a curiously communal way of sharing a moment, and the effort involved made the final moment even more special. I think The Queue is more than that though. We’re unlikely to see its like again anytime soon. People often say the Brits are famous for their queues and this is the queue to end all queues. And we’re held back to watch this short ceremony that is repeated every 20 minutes.Īnd then the culmination of The Queue, the moment where you walk past the coffin, pause, bow if you want, and then pass out into a world that’s changed.Įight hours in total from start to finish. The late Queen is in the centre, surrounded by soldiers, and it almost seems crass to say it was nice, but I was there right at the moment when the changing of the guard took place. It’s not just that they’ve turned on all the decorative lights, nor that all the staff are in formal wear, it’s what we’ve come to see. ![]() I’ve been in Westminster Hall many times, but now it’s different. The Queue thins out again and also moves much faster, so you never feel stuck in The Queue, and eventually, you get to the front, the security search, and then into Westminster Hall. And again, oddly it’s not as bad as it seems. Imagine those long winding routes for queues in theme park rides, and then magnify it many times over. Over Lambeth, and finally, you think you’re in the home run, but then comes the “snake”, as it’s been nicknamed. Over on the other side of the Thames, the Victoria Tower Gardens are floodlit and you can clearly make out the crowd over there shuffling forward. Slowly shuffling along the Thames again, and with people stopping for photos of the Palace of Westminster glowing in the darkness, the thin queue has got fatter as it bunches up a bit. If there were no clocks to look at, I might have guessed maybe two hours, as time passed remarkably quickly. It took me about five hours to reach Westminster, and oddly it didn’t feel like five hours had passed. ![]() The occasional signs start to become much more frequent, while fencing and barriers start springing up, for we’re approaching Westminster, and now you can expect to have wriststraps inspected. There’s chatter along The Queue, but it’s muted and quiet in the darkness.Ī lone skateboarder was practising his moves in the Southbank at 4am, possibly expecting to be entirely alone, but instead to occasional cheers from The Queue when a jump went well.Įventually, though, The Queue, which snaked through quiet routes along the Thames reaches busier spaces, with security and marshalls increasing, and once past the London Eye, and wriststrap applied, it becomes much more serious. More welcome was the eventual arrival of park benches along the riverside once we reached the OXO Tower. It didn’t affect The Queue though, and people seemed free to pop off for a coffee or the loo and rejoin a bit later. People dart off occasionally to grab a coffee or use the loo – and while the official information is that you get a wristband to permit that at the start of the queue, they’re actually handed out next to the London Eye. Don’t just face forwards in the direction of The Queue, but look behind you at times to see the City lit up at night. The same customers who a few hours later would be grateful for the many toilets that have sprung up along the route.īeing along the river, you get some wonderful views across the Thames, towards St Paul’s Cathedral, the City offices, and the Illuminated River is (mostly) working overnight, giving the bridges a purple decoration. Several cafes along the route as it snaked around Bankside were full of customers. Even this writer who charges around on foot and loathes being stuck behind slow walkers found himself enjoying this enforced slow shuffle. It’s curiously relaxing, as you’re not standing around for ages. Walk for 15 seconds, wait for a minute, and repeat, for hours. ![]() ![]() It was to take eight hours.įortunately, barring the occasional hiatus, the shuffle is nearly constant throughout the night. I could usually do that in under an hour. I did The Queue overnight as it’s better for me, so catching the last train into London Bridge saw me joining The Queue at around 00:45am for an overnight walk to Westminster. Where you join the queue depends on your luck, but it seems to be somewhere between Southwark and Tower Bridges so far, and once you join, it’s hours of slowly shuffling forward to get to the final destination. The only one that matters, the one that runs for miles so that people can walk past The Queen’s coffin inside Westminster Hall. Britain is filled with people queuing, but at the moment, there’s just The Queue.
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