11-hour wait for mourners to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth

Members of the public wishing to pay their respects to the monarch - who died on 8 September aged 96 - have been warned they need to be in the queue by 12.30am on Monday (19.09.22) in order to make it into Westminster Hall in London before it closes at 6.30am, hours before her funeral is due to take place.

At 7am on Friday (16.09.22), the queue was over four miles long and those at the back faced waiting 11-hours to make it to the front of the line, but at one point hours earlier, the queue had swelled to five miles, stretching as far back as Southwark Park in Bermondsey, with a queuing time of 14 hours.

Well-wishers were admitted to the queue on Monday (12.09.22) before being allowed into Westminster Hall on Wednesday (14.09.22) at 5pm, and in the early hours of Thursday (15.09.22) morning, officials made the decision to form two columns either side of the queen's coffin, so more people can pay their respects at once and the process moves more quickly.

Sisters Rebecca and Sarah Welham travelled from Sevenoaks, Kent, to join the queue at around 4am on Friday, along with Rebecca's five-year-old daughter Sophia.

Sisters Rebecca and Sarah Welham travelled from Sevenoaks, Kent, to join the queue at around 4am on Friday, along with Rebecca's five-year-old daughter Sophia.

Rebecca told the Daily Telegraph about her daughter: "She went to bed last night and then 4am this morning I got her up. "I was ready to go, so I literally had to get her up and then go straight out the door.

"She is quite excited, if I can use that word, to see the queen. "She understands what has happened and she wants to be part of it."

Nurse Melanie Pickman left her home in Swansea at 11am on Thursday (15.09.22), making it into the queue just before 3pm but admitted her family thought she was "mad" for making the trip.

She said: "My sons think I'm mad because I have come to London to stand in a queue which some people say could be 30 hours long. "Last night I thought about it and I made the decision to come first thing this morning. I just thought that I needed to come.

"We will never see this again. She served our country for such a long time. We owe it to her to show our respect. "Look at all these people who have shown up to queue - she has made them happy.

"She may be the Queen but she is also somebody's mum, aunty and granny. I just think she is part of us as well. We have been lucky to have her."