Thousands Queue Overnight To See Queen’s Casket In Edinburgh

The solemn ceremonies in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, who will be buried at Windsor Castle alongside her royal predecessors, are continuing as thousands of people queued in the streets of Edinburgh overnight to view the Queen’s coffin at rest in St Giles’ Cathedral from the west door.

A long line of people snaked around the city’s Old Town as they waited between five to seven hours for their turn to walk past the oak casket of the late monarch.

The queue at St Giles’ from the west door, outside McGonagall’s on George IV Bridge, stretches around Parliament Square, along Chambers Street; Potter Row; around George Square, and onto the Meadows where it doubled back along the paths.

In keeping on top of developments in the wake of the Queen’s passage, the main events today (Tuesday, September 13, 2022) include King Charles flying to Belfast later this morning with Camilla, the Queen Consort, for various official events.

The Queen’s coffin will remain at rest in Edinburgh before being flown to London at around 6 pm, and the buildup to her lying-in-state in for four days.

The Main Highlights:

Thousands of people have been paying their respects to the Queen through the night as her coffin continues to lay at rest in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. Members of the public queued for hours to move silently past the oak coffin as the Queen’s children stood vigil.

Civil liberties campaigners and MPs have criticised police for the “shocking” treatment of anti-monarchy protesters after a number of incidents at events surrounding the Queen’s death. A 22-year-old man was arrested in Edinburgh on Monday for apparently heckling Prince Andrew.

The King leaves Edinburgh this (Tuesday) morning and flies to Belfast with the Queen Consort. He will attend an exhibition on the late Queen’s association with Northern Ireland at Hillsborough Castle before a reception with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, and civic leaders. He will also receive the official condolences of the people of Northern Ireland from Sinn Fein City Mayor Alex Maskey.

The coffin will be flown from Edinburgh Airport to London at 6 pm today (Tuesday), accompanied by the Queen’s daughter, Princess Royal. The RAF Globemaster C-17 flight will land at RAF Northolt from where the coffin will be driven to Buckingham Palace.

People have already started queueing to pay their respects to the Queen when her coffin is moved to Westminster Hall on Wednesday where it lies in state until 6.30 am on Monday morning. A huge logistical and security operation is underway to deal with the hundreds of thousands of people expected to join the queues.

Expectedly, the preparations have disrupted this week’s football fixtures with the police mostly pulled away from normal duties to supervise the buildup to the funeral in London.

In the process, Manchester United’s weekend home game against Leeds and Liverpool’s visit to Chelsea will be played at a later date while Arsenal’s Europa League tie at home to PSV on Thursday is also off.

Also, the poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has composed a poem as his tribute to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth. Floral Tribute is a double-acrostic poem that spells out the Queen’s name in two verses of nine lines, and which Armitage says seeks to ‘encode’ her name.

Similarly, Japanese broadcasters have flown film crews and reporters from New York, Paris, and Bangkok to cover the royal funeral and accession of King Charles, with three Japanese networks broadcasting live from Edinburgh’s St Giles’ cathedral on Tuesday morning.

While the Japanese networks Nippon TV, TV Asahi, and TBS were live on lunchtime bulletins at home, filming as mourners filed slowly into St Giles’ for the Queen’s coffin lying at rest, alongside them, three crews from Australia’s Channel 9 were broadcasting or filming for separate evening bulletins.

On Monday night, officials warned people not to wait or camp along the route where the Queen’s coffin will be taken from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall for the lying-in-state.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport said: “Please do not wait or camp in advance of the processional day. If you camp before this time, you may be asked to move on.” – With The Guardian reports