The queen’s queue: people line up for 16 hours to see coffin

Reuters:

LONDON, Sept 17- People flocked to central London to join a queue to file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth on Saturday, undeterred by a government warning to stay at home to avoid standing in line for hours to see the late monarch’s lying-in-state.

Tens of thousands of people have already filed past the coffin in a steady, solemn stream, queuing for hours through the dark and cold to pay their respects to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch – a testimony to the affection in which she was held.

By mid-morning, the culture ministry said the waiting time stood at up to 16 hours to reach Westminster Hall to take part.

Earlier, the ministry had said it would pause entry to the queue if demand became too high, adding at 1 a.m. (0000 GMT): “Please do not travel.”

New friendships, acts of kindness and the struggles of standing in line for hours, sometimes overnight, have come to define what has become known as just “the queue”.

Film-maker Matthew West described how a military man was offered the chance to get to the front but declined. “That was the highlight. The lowlight was when we stood still for two hours and I lost the will to live.”

The death of the queen on Sept. 8 at her summer estate in the Scottish highlands has sparked an outpouring of emotion across the country and 10 days of choreographed events.

Having laid at rest in the Scottish capital for 24 hours the coffin was flown south to London, where tens of thousands of people crowded onto a normally busy road in driving rain to observe the flag-draped casket being driven to Buckingham Palace.