How did you spend this morning?

In which Doris and Sid visit Her Maj for one final time.

The Doughty Duo are no strangers to getting up early for flights, and so when Doris decided that it would be interesting (insert adjective of choice) to go to Her Maj’s Lying In State, we plumped for the First Train to try and beat all the other Wily Early Risers/Late Workers.  The First Train is at 05:16, (although it turns out that the Stansted trains are running hourly all night, just as well we didn’t know that) so it was alarms on at 04:30 and down to the station.

Arriving in the City at 06:02 many of the commuter food shops weren’t yet open, but a few were, so clutching some dubiously overpriced baked goods it was ho for the End of the Queue.

This is not as easy to find as you might think.  The Queue starts at the north end of Lambeth Bridge and could wind its way through most of South London, but that gives you a 10 mile window.  Fortunately some genius has created a YouTube site which shows you where it is now, and if you are reading this fairly soon after we post it, and wish to admire the current queue length it is here.   And in case it’s already been removed, here is a screen shot.  Sid and Doris homed in accurately on the then-current end of the queue (a couple of hours before this screenshot) which was at Tate Modern – only 2 miles to go!

It was an extremely good-natured queue, running along the south bank of the Thames on a dry cloudy day, perfect queueing conditions.

We soon get talking to the people round us in the queue, the demographic you might expect from people who can afford to take at least half a day off work to stand in a queue.  This is a proper middle class experience.

The queue is really the only story in town at the moment so the route is lined with newscasters trying to say something new about it.

After Westminster Bridge the queue is still along the south side of the river, opposite the Houses of Parliament.  Time for a quick selfie while also seeing the Covid Wall for the first time.  There is a heart painted on this wall for every person who died of Covid in the UK, and it is a very very long wall.

People are encouraged to pick a heart and write names and messages on the wall.

Well, from two hundred thousand people back to just one, and we go over Lambeth Bridge and into Victoria Gardens, less than 3 hours after joining the queue.  Victoria Gardens however contains a Secret Weapon – the airport-style stacking system.  We are only a third of a mile from Westminster Hall but we don’t know that we still have 2 hours to go.

Everyone has been strongly encouraged to come prepared for a Long Wait, with plenty of food and water.  However no food or water is allowed into the hall itself, so at some point in this section you have to get rid of it. Some very well-turned-out Scouts are standing by with bags to pass unopened items to food banks, but opened stuff can be put in one of the very many rubbish bags, or eaten.  A re-run of the loaves and fishes follows as people try to get their fellow queue participants – and even the local policemen – to join in the speed-feasting.

Time for a selfie with our fellow queuers, Rose and Michele as we finally get out of that bit, and into the security search (very thorough, Rose lost her tiny perfume bottle, we hadn’t been warned about the no-makeup-or-perfume rule).

And that should be it for the photos, because it is cameras and phones off after security.  But through the miracle of the internet, Doris’ niece is watching the live-stream in China [Hello Josephine! – Dx] and finds your duo as they are asked to wait on the stairs going down into the hall and get a great view of the changing of the guard.

Yes look, there is Sid in his beige trousis, and a bit behind him and to your right, Doris in a black jacket.  Fame!!

Back out into the real world just 5 hours after joining the queue. We were glad we went, and feel a little bit more proudly British because of it.  Not to mention slightly damp around the eyes.

PS If you feel like a bit of nostalgia, here is the Queen in That Bond Scene in the 2012 Olympics

Her Covid broadcast (with some pretty terrible subtitles when I watched it, try to ignore them.  However I like someone’s comment at the bottom: “I was hoping she would say at the end, don’t forget to smash that like button and click here to see other Queen videos.”).

And with Paddington for the Platinum Jubilee – gosh, that was only 3 months ago.

And I guess that’s it.