Queen Elizabeth's Lying in State

Twelve hours in The Queue, September 2022. Ten miles of the Thames, a pink wristband, and a night London will not forget.

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🇬🇧 Why We Went

When Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022, I flew to London to pay my respects. My friend Martino met me in the city. On Saturday the 17th I joined the queue at Southwark Park with a water bottle and no real idea what I had signed up for.

🕯️ Twelve Hours in the Line

The queue ran about ten miles along the Thames, from Southwark Park to Westminster Hall, and took me twelve hours through the night. Around 250,000 people made the same walk that week, some waiting close to 24 hours at the peak. I stood with strangers who became friends by Tower Bridge; we shared photos, food, and the 4 a.m. silence, and we walked past the lying in state together just after 3 in the morning.

🎗️ What Stays

Photography stopped at the door of Westminster Hall, which is as it should be. What I kept instead: a pink wristband stamped LISQ, pictures of every purple bridge on the Thames, and the memory of a very long line of people being quietly, remarkably kind to each other.

Mile Zero

The Back of the Queue

It started in Southwark Park on a bright Saturday afternoon: a sign, a wristband, and ten miles of London between us and Westminster Hall.

Lying-in-State queue direction sign on a post in Southwark Park, London — **The Sign in Southwark Park**The official arrow at Southwark Park, where the queue began, with about ten miles of river between us and Westminster Hall. It was a bright Saturday afternoon and everyone was strangely cheerful.

Zigzag crowd barriers for the lying-in-state queue in Southwark Park — **The Switchbacks**Empty crowd barriers zigzag under the plane trees, ready for the evening surge. We learned to be grateful for every stretch of straight walking.

Pink lying-in-state queue wristband on a wrist, water bottle in hand — **Wristband C**The pink wristband made it official. Once you had one, you could step out for coffee or a bathroom stop and rejoin your place in the line.

Close-up of pink LISQ wristband with non-transferable fine print — **The Fine Print**LISQ: Lying-in-State Queue. The band was strictly non-transferable and, as the print says, no guarantee of entry. Roughly 250,000 people wore one that week.

Office window with Queen Elizabeth portrait and paper candle tributes — **Bermondsey Remembers**A portrait and paper candles taped inside an office window along the route. All the way to Westminster, windows like this kept the queue company.

First Light to Last

Tower Bridge Turns Purple

Two hours in, the queue met the Thames at Tower Bridge just as the mourning lights came on.

Tower Bridge tower in golden evening light, London — **Golden Hour at the Bridge**The north tower catches the last sun as the queue reached the river. Two hours in, we already had queue friends. You do not stand twelve hours with strangers.

Lying-in-state queue at dusk on Potters Fields with Tower Bridge lit purple — **Potters Fields at Dusk**The line pools across Potters Fields as the bridge lights come up purple. Nobody complained. It felt more like a vigil than a wait.

Tower Bridge tower floodlit purple at blue hour — **Purple for the Queen**Tower Bridge floodlit in purple, the color of royal mourning, as it was every night that week. The gold finials burned against the blue hour.

The Long Middle

A Night on the Thames

From the Tower to Blackfriars, the queue walked the south bank while London lit every bridge purple.

Tower of London floodlit at night across the River Thames — **The Tower of London**The White Tower floodlit across the river as the queue moved west. The Crown Jewels were inside; their keeper lay in state a few miles upstream.

City of London skyline at sunset above the heads of the queue — **The City at Sunset**The Walkie-Talkie and the City cluster at last light, over the heads of the queue. The pace was slow enough to watch the whole sky change.

Southwark Bridge lit purple at night with St Paul's Cathedral beyond — **Southwark Bridge**Southwark Bridge in purple with St Paul's beyond. Every bridge we passed that night wore the same color.

St Paul's Cathedral and Millennium Bridge at night from the south bank — **St Paul's and the Millennium Bridge**The dome floodlit above the Millennium Bridge in the late evening. The queue hugged the south bank the whole way.

Night Thames view toward Blackfriars and St Paul's with searchlight beams — **Searchlights**Searchlight beams sweep the sky beyond Blackfriars as the queue neared its sixth hour. London stayed wide awake with us.

How It Worked

The Queue Machine

Wait-time signs, archive films, festival signage, and volunteers with tea. The queue was a city in its own right, and a remarkably kind one.

LED sign reading Lying In State Queue Please Expect Long Delays — **Expect Long Delays**The politest sign in Britain, parked by the riverside at Bankside. Nobody in the queue needed the warning by then.

LED sign showing lying-in-state queue wait time of four to five hours — **Four to Five Hours to Go**Nearly midnight on the South Bank, and four to five hours still to walk. Saying it out loud made it funnier, not worse.

Queue watching an outdoor screen showing archive film of Queen Elizabeth II — **Life of a Queen, 1960**The BFI ran archive films of the Queen on outdoor screens along the South Bank. The line slowed itself to watch a young Elizabeth and Philip.

Illuminated sign directing the queue to toilets, flowers, tributes and cafe — **Flowers, Tributes, Cafe**Victoria Tower Gardens, signposted like a festival site: toilets, drinking water, flowers, tributes, cafe. The organization was its own kind of tribute.

Salvation Army van serving hot drinks to the night queue — **Tea in the Small Hours**The Salvation Army poured tea through the night. Small kindnesses carried the queue as much as the barriers did.

Hour Ten

The Last Mile

Past the Covid Memorial Wall and into the floodlit switchbacks of Victoria Tower Gardens, where the queue finally went quiet.

Painted red hearts covering the National Covid Memorial Wall at night — **The Covid Memorial Wall**The National Covid Memorial Wall runs along the final stretch, one painted heart for every life lost. At night, in that company, it stopped everyone.

Dense night crowd in queue switchbacks at Victoria Tower Gardens — **Victoria Tower Gardens**The final switchbacks under floodlight, past 1 AM. Nine hours in, and the quietest the queue had been all night.

Queue filing along the Palace of Westminster wall at night toward security — **Along the Palace Wall**The last walk beside the Palace of Westminster toward the security tent. Phones came out, ours included. Inside the Hall itself photography stopped, and rightly.

Hour Twelve

Westminster Before Dawn

Through security, into Westminster Hall, and out into an empty Westminster at half past three in the morning.

Houses of Parliament floodlit gold at night, reflected in the Thames — **Parliament in Gold**The floodlit Houses of Parliament across the water, the queue's first full view of where it was headed. Westminster Hall waits behind those towers.

Westminster Abbey floodlit at night with rows of Commonwealth flags — **The Abbey at 3 AM**Westminster Abbey floodlit and ringed with Commonwealth flags, the funeral one day away. We came out of the Hall into this.

Big Ben at night under a hazy moon over empty streets — **Out Into the Night**Big Ben under a hazy moon at half past three, twelve hours after Southwark Park. It was silent inside the Hall. None of us said much outside either.

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Queen Elizabeth's Lying in State

🇬🇧 Why We Went

🕯️ Twelve Hours in the Line

🎗️ What Stays

The Back of the Queue

Tower Bridge Turns Purple

A Night on the Thames

The Queue Machine

The Last Mile

Westminster Before Dawn

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