Tower and Town, November 2022

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Lying In State

On that Thursday we had the honour of attending the Lying In State of HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Armed with marmalade sandwiches, we joined the line snaking along the Thames at the point where the Golden Hinde rests in dry dock (23:30). The app on our phones told us we were something like 2.6 miles from our goal of Westminster Hall – although that proved to be a considerable underestimate of our journey through the night. Daughter Georgia sent us a Twitter quote: If you are British, this is the queue you’ve been training for all your life.

Seeing night-time London reflected in the Thames as we shuffled along the South Bank was quite magical. As we progressed, the tide turned and the current came racing in from the sea, glinting in the city lights. There was St Paul’s, standing out against the taller buildings of the city on the north side along with the Millenium Bridge, with the Tate, the Oxo Tower, Shakespeare’s Globe and the London Eye on the south side. The stretch between Westminster and Lambeth bridges brought us right up against the brim-full river as we scented the approach of our goal.

We had a lovely couple behind us, Chelsea fans just back from a match. In front was a pair of schoolfriends, one a doctor, the other a zookeeper specialising in gorillas. In front of them was another couple, he a pest controller around London, lamenting the traffic developments of the past couple of years: cyclists zooming dangerously through red lights, with motor-scooter delivery drivers now beginning to follow suit.

Crossing Lambeth bridge, you could feel the footsteps quicken, the anticipation rise. But then, turning the corner at the end of the bridge, came the great shock: amid a welter of generators, portaloos and discarded rubbish, something like 100 zigzags covering the length of Victoria Tower Gardens. We reckon this added some 3.5 miles to our pilgrimage, more than doubling the distance from our starting point. Soul-destroying.

By contrast, the police at the security point were a tonic: quick, efficient and common sensical in their assessment of what could pass and what couldn’t, adding kindly concern and friendly chat. Time: 07:30.

Then it was into the Great Hall of the Palace of Westminster.

Actually being in the Hall was deeply moving and awe-inspiring. Our arrival coincided with the changing of the guard, with great clomping of boots and solemn dignity. And then being able to stand beside the coffin, draped with the royal standard and supporting the Imperial State crown, the monarch’s orb and sceptre, was a unique and precious experience, real and powerful, within touching distance of the Guardsmen, the Gentlemen at Arms and the Yeomen Warders.

We felt vividly part of an ancient and hard-won tradition. This is Our Monarchy, Our Parliament, unique among the nations.

Hugh de Saram