By Stefan Boscia
Up to 1m mourners are expected to pay their respects to the Queen while she is lying in state at parliament, with queues already forming around Westminster today.
The government has announced the queue to see Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin will begin on the Albert Embankment tomorrow and continue to Southwark Park, with people warned they will have to wait “many hours” and “possibly overnight”.
There has been speculation that some will have to wait 30 hours to see the late monarch’s coffin.
The coffin will be transported from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall in parliament from 2.22pm tomorrow in a procession that will begin at Buckingham Palace and go up the Mall.
The Queen’s coffin returned to London tonight, after being flown in from Scotland, where Prime Minister Liz Truss and Princess Anne were waiting at RAF Northolt.
Westminster Hall will be open to the public from 5pm tomorrow and will stay open 24 hours a day for mourners until 6.30am on Monday.
A government statement last night said people will be “directed across Lambeth Bridge, into Victoria Tower Gardens and through airport-style security before entering the Palace of Westminster where The Queen will be Lying-in-State” once they pass through Albert Embankment.
A Number 10 spokesperson said “we don’t know exactly how many people will attend albeit we expect it to be very large numbers”.
They added that there “won’t be a cut off point” where people will be told they can no longer join the queue and the “overarching aim is for as many people to get through”.
Parliamentary authorities are already beefing up security in the lead up to the coffin’s arrival, with a service set to be held after the coffin arrives at Westminster Hall involving King Charles and other Royal Family members.
There are also more than 1,000 volunteers, stewards and Metropolitan Police officers that will be around Westminster and central London to monitor the queue.
There are also 1,500 members of the armed forces which are on standby to help.
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