Line to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II temporarily closed

• The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport tweeted regarding Southwark Park.
• The wait time for Her Majesty’s casket has now reached 14 hours.
• The ambiance in Westminster Hall was “sorrowful but thankful,” according to Heffernan.

British government representatives momentarily closed the back of the line for those waiting to see Queen Elizabeth II lie in state at Westminster Hall, preventing fresh mourners from joining the already-existing line.

According to the news, the line for guests was approximately 5 miles long and the wait time had reached 14 hours.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport of the United Kingdom government has been providing consistent updates on the wait on Twitter. The account stated that after Southwark Park “reached capacity,” admission to the line will be suspended “for at least 6 hours,” as of Friday morning, just before 10 a.m. local time.

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“We are sorry for any inconvenience,” a tweet from the agency read. “Please do not attempt to join the queue until it re-opens. Check back for further updates.”

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN’S LYING-IN-STATE QUEUE UPDATE, 09:50 AM, 16 Sept

Southwark Park has reached capacity. Entry will be paused for at least 6 hours. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Please do not attempt to join the queue until it re-opens.

Check back for further updates pic.twitter.com/XMpyhOrme7

— Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (@DCMS) September 16, 2022

The 96-year-old Queen passed away on September 8th.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of mourners have travelled from all four corners in coach loads, by train, and by vehicle to see Her Majesty lying in state.

The Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards pallbearers carry Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin into Westminster Hall at the Palace of Westminster.

She will stay in Westminster Hall until the early hours of Monday morning, when the state funeral celebrations will start, where members of the public may view her casket whenever they like.

One who had previously passed through the queue was Isabella Heffernan, a 19-year-old American student at Stanford University who is majoring in bioethics.

Heffernan waited in line for the late monarch’s casket for five hours.

“I personally don’t have a connection to the Queen, but I thought it’s a moment in history,” Heffernan told. “She reigned for 70 years, and it’s something you’re never going to get again.”

She added, “It’s something you will tell your kids and your grandkids about, and it’s a moment in the history books — and to me, that was the important thing.”

When Queen Elizabeth passed away last week at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Heffernan, a native of Rhode Island, was in Dublin, Ireland, visiting family.

“I immediately bought a ticket to come here,” she said about hearing the news.

“I immediately bought a ticket to come here,” she said about hearing the news.

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“You could tell this meant so much to people,” she explained. “When people go on tours to the U.S. Capitol, it’s more laid back. But here, it was like their own grandmother had died. That’s the way it felt, which was actually shocking but also amazing and interesting to see.”

She said, “I just can’t get over how much people seem to connect with her because I’ve met a couple of political figures. I’ve met Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders and state senators when I was younger, and you didn’t have that deep connection. You’d hear about a funeral and would feel kind of sad. But the Queen has given her life to service, and her people are so grateful, which to me was a really surprising thing to see.”

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