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About this Episode
We are talking, of course, about the queue which Britons must join in order to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II. This is not an ordinary line. It has taken on symbolic meaning, a ritual to be undertaken, an embodiment of the national mood. It is, in short, The Queue.
It snakes from Westminster Hall, where the late monarch’s body is lying in state, for miles along the south bank of the River Thames. It stretches past landmarks such as the London Eye (constructed at the turn of the millennium), the Royal Festival Hall (opened in 1951, the year before Princess Elizabeth’s accession to the throne) and the Globe theater (a throwback to a previous Elizabethan age). Plans are in place for it to be as long as nine miles, or 14.5 kilometers.
It may not be as fast-moving as another method of getting from one end of London to another, but it does share a moniker – the Elizabeth line.
In a quintessentially British fashion, an orderly line began to form outside the Palace of Westminster as soon as it was announced the late monarch would be lying in state at Westminster Hall on Monday – two days before the hall’s doors would open to public.
By Wednesday afternoon, The Queue became official, and up popped all the planned amenities. Portable toilets, water fountains and first-aid stations were dotted along the route and a bag drop was set up towards the front.
The Queue passes Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, of which the British monarch is Supreme Governor. The current incumbent, Justin Welby, came out to bestow a personal blessing on The Queue and all who were waiting in it on Wednesday, expressing a hope that they stayed warm and enjoyed each other’s company.
Each mourner is handed a special wristband indicating their position in The Queue, which is then inspected at various checkpoints along the route. In the unlikely event of someone attempting to jump The Queue, hundreds of police officers and marshals in high-vis vests are on hand to keep order.
To make The Queue as efficient as possible, the UK government has set up a live tracker that displays its current length and where the current end point – warning potential Queuers to prepared for a very, very long wait.
“You will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down, as the queue will keep moving,” says the government’s official guide to The Queue – because of course there is such a document.
There was even a designated last-in-Queue person: A marshal equipped with big, black flag that reads “Lying-In-State, Queue Starts Here”. (Unlike the other advancing Queuers, this person is destined forever to move further away, never to reach that mythical destination, Front of the Queue.
Soccer star David Beckham was spotted waiting in line along with members of the public to pay respect to the queen as she lies in state in Westminster Hall, and he made his way inside after over 13 hours. Beckham while in line, noting he arrived at 2:00 that morning. "I thought that by coming at 2 a.m., it was going to be a little bit quieter," he said. "I was wrong. Everybody had that in mind. But the people here, all ages … everybody wants to be here, to be part of this experience and celebrate what her majesty has done for us."
It snakes from Westminster Hall, where the late monarch’s body is lying in state, for miles along the south bank of the River Thames. It stretches past landmarks such as the London Eye (constructed at the turn of the millennium), the Royal Festival Hall (opened in 1951, the year before Princess Elizabeth’s accession to the throne) and the Globe theater (a throwback to a previous Elizabethan age). Plans are in place for it to be as long as nine miles, or 14.5 kilometers.
It may not be as fast-moving as another method of getting from one end of London to another, but it does share a moniker – the Elizabeth line.
In a quintessentially British fashion, an orderly line began to form outside the Palace of Westminster as soon as it was announced the late monarch would be lying in state at Westminster Hall on Monday – two days before the hall’s doors would open to public.
By Wednesday afternoon, The Queue became official, and up popped all the planned amenities. Portable toilets, water fountains and first-aid stations were dotted along the route and a bag drop was set up towards the front.
The Queue passes Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, of which the British monarch is Supreme Governor. The current incumbent, Justin Welby, came out to bestow a personal blessing on The Queue and all who were waiting in it on Wednesday, expressing a hope that they stayed warm and enjoyed each other’s company.
Each mourner is handed a special wristband indicating their position in The Queue, which is then inspected at various checkpoints along the route. In the unlikely event of someone attempting to jump The Queue, hundreds of police officers and marshals in high-vis vests are on hand to keep order.
To make The Queue as efficient as possible, the UK government has set up a live tracker that displays its current length and where the current end point – warning potential Queuers to prepared for a very, very long wait.
“You will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down, as the queue will keep moving,” says the government’s official guide to The Queue – because of course there is such a document.
There was even a designated last-in-Queue person: A marshal equipped with big, black flag that reads “Lying-In-State, Queue Starts Here”. (Unlike the other advancing Queuers, this person is destined forever to move further away, never to reach that mythical destination, Front of the Queue.
Soccer star David Beckham was spotted waiting in line along with members of the public to pay respect to the queen as she lies in state in Westminster Hall, and he made his way inside after over 13 hours. Beckham while in line, noting he arrived at 2:00 that morning. "I thought that by coming at 2 a.m., it was going to be a little bit quieter," he said. "I was wrong. Everybody had that in mind. But the people here, all ages … everybody wants to be here, to be part of this experience and celebrate what her majesty has done for us."
Hosts & Guests
No transcript available for this episode.
