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[title]While some people watch in amazement at the crowds willing to spend hours queuing to see the late monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, lie in state; others are packing several meals in their backpacks, along with their overnight thermals and joining the queue from Bermondsey all the way to Westminster Hall.
‘I’ve come to pay my respects to the Queen and I thought that I don’t think there’s a more fitting way to tribute the Queen than standing in a queue for six hours. It’s a very British thing to do,’ says 29-year-old actor Myles Higson.
Time Out went down to the queue, which is currently more than four miles long, to find out what was really going down. There, we found mourners who had made friends with one another. ‘I met a stranger in the queue, and he’s a historian, so I literally got a tour of London for the last three hours,’ says Myles. ‘It’s been quite fascinating.’
For others, they couldn’t miss out on the chance to pay their respects to the late monarch. ‘I was watching the lying in state on TV for many hours,’ says David Shaw, 76, a retired teacher. ‘It was about eight o’clock this morning and I thought I can’t live with myself, I have to go. So we went to Rugby station, got on the train and here we are.’
We went to visit The Queue and here’s what we saw:
What we learned after queuing eight hours to see the Queen lie in state
Five London lessons that King Charles could learn from his historical namesakes