LONDON (AP) — The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II left Buckingham Palace for the last time Wednesday, borne on a horse-drawn carriage and saluted by cannons and the tolling of Big Ben, in a solemn procession through the flag-draped, crowd-lined streets of London to Westminster Hall. There, Britain’s longest-serving monarch will lie in state for the world to mourn.
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Her son, King Charles III, and his siblings and sons marched behind the coffin, which was topped by a wreath of white roses and her crown resting on a purple velvet pillow.
The queen will lie in state for four days until her funeral Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to file past. Eight pall bearers carried the oak and lead-lined coffin into Westminster Hall, placing it on a raised platform known as a catafalque.
The military procession from Buckingham Palace was designed to underscore the queen’s seven decades as head of state as the national mourning process shifted to the grand boulevards and historic landmarks of the U.K. capital.
Thousands who had waited for hours along The Mall outside the palace and other locations along the route held up phones and cameras, and some wiped away tears, as the procession passed. Applause broke out as the coffin passed through Horse Guards Parade.
The coffin was draped in the Royal Standard and topped with the Imperial State Crown — encrusted with almost 3,000 diamonds — and a bouquet of flowers and plants, including pine from the Balmoral Estate, where Elizabeth died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96.
Two officers and 32 troops from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in red uniforms and bearskin hats walked on either side of the gun carriage. The 38-minute procession ended at Westminster Hall, where Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led a service attended by Charles and other royals.
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you," Welby read from the Book of John.
Hours before the coffin had arrived, the line of mourners already stretched from Parliament across nearby Lambeth Bridge and snaked along the south bank of the River Thames. The designated route stretches for 6.9 miles past the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Tate Modern art gallery and Tower Bridge to Southwark Park in south London, which can accommodate another 3 miles of zigzagging queues.
The wait to see her lying in state could be up to 30 hours, and many people have already begun camping for her funeral next week.
Officials said they can’t predict how many people will line up to pay their respects at Westminster Hall, but it is likely to be many more than the 200,000 who visited the Queen Mother Elizabeth’s coffin over three days in 2002.
Transit operator Transport for London estimates that more than 1 million people will travel to the city center to be part of commemorations through Monday.
The crowds are the latest manifestation of the nationwide outpouring of grief and respect for the only monarch most Britons have ever known after her 70 years on the throne.
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