Queen Elizabeth II‘s coffin will move in a procession through central London on Wednesday from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where the late monarch will lie in state for four days until her state funeral on Monday.
Members of the public will be able to visit the queen’s coffin at Westminster Hall to pay their respects. Crowds had already gathered early Wednesday morning to view the procession, and a line had begun to form of people waiting to file past the queen’s coffin. The doors of the ancient hall on the bank of the River Thames were to open to the public from 5 p.m. local time.
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Sharon Stapleton told CBS News she had “met lots of interesting different people you wouldn’t meet normally — all brought together and united in their grief for the queen, and excited about being able to go through and see her lying in state.”
“It’s been a long night. It’s been raining, very wet, a bit cold,” added Stapleton, who said she started waiting in the line at 9 p.m. Tuesday night. “But it’s worth every minute of it.”
The most senior members of the royal family will take part in the procession — a roughly 40-minute walk, in silence — from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, including the new monarch King Charles III and his sons, Princes William and Harry.
The bells of Big Ben, the iconic clock tower in Parliament Square, will toll and a gun salute will be fired at Hyde Park nearby.
A short service will be held when the coffin reaches Westminster Hall, which the royal family will attend. The coffin will rest on a raised platform, which will be guarded around the clock for the full four-day lying in state period by members of various British military regiments assigned to royal protection duty.
