Queen Returned to Buckingham Palace in Preparation for Lying in State, Final Journey

The late Queen Elizabeth II has returned to London and Buckingham Palace for the final time, her coffin flown from Scotland by military plane before the commencement of lying in state at Westminster Hall on Wednesday.

Driven from RAF Northolt in the state hearse, the Queen’s coffin arrived at Buckingham Palace Tuesday evening, witnessed by crowds of well-wishers. The Queen will lie in rest in the Bow Room of Buckingham Palace overnight and there will be a private service of prayers for members of the Royal family.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Queen’s coffin will be moved again, to Westminster Hall — the ancient palace by the River Thames which is now part of the Houses of Parliament — where Her Majesty will lie in state for nearly five days. The hall will be open to the public for 24 hours a day every day in this period for the public to pay their respects, and it is anticipated that huge, even unprecedented numbers of people will wish to do so.

Estimates of queue times to access the hall — which is subject to strict, airport-like regulations to entry to prevent protesters and attention-seekers from causing havoc — have been placed at 20 hours and possibly rising even to 30 hours.

Once the lying in state is complete, the Queen will then take her final journey from Westminster to Windsor on Monday 19th, where she will be interred privately in the Royal family vault. This journey will be taken in part on a hand-drawn gun carriage, a tradition dating back to the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901.

Before this evening, the Queen’s coffin had been lying in rest at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh. She was conveyed from Scotland to RAF Northolt in West London by a Royal Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III: robbing the public of the chance to see the Royal train go by had that been chosen for use, but undoubtedly completing the journey considerably faster.