The Queen’s coffin was moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall to lay in state during a practise run by the Household Division the previous night.
In preparation for Wednesday, when there will be a procession conveying Queen Elizabeth’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall in London, the regiments marched along the Mall in the dark.
The city’s street lights shone on the cortege as they practised the transfer while wearing their ceremonial costume.
A stand-in coffin was pulled by a gun carriage as the regiments moved along the predetermined path. The practise also featured equestrian police personnel.
The casket will go past the Queen’s Gardens, The Mall, Horse Guards and Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square, and New Palace Yard on its trip tomorrow.
The casket will be followed on foot by the King and other distinguished members of the Royal Family.
Senior personnel from the Queen’s and the King’s households will then come behind them, followed by close personal staff.
Without any music, the procession will travel in quiet.
Guards of honour from each of the three services will be stationed along the path in the meantime.
A ceremonial salute will be given by the King’s Life Guard as the casket goes past Horse Guard’s Arch.
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery will fire minute guns in Hyde Park throughout the parade, and Big Ben will chime.
The coffin is scheduled to arrive at Westminster Hall’s North Door at 3 p.m. tomorrow, after which it will be carried inside by the Queen’s Company of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards bearer company.
Prior to the commencement of the Queen’s four-and-a-half-day lie in state, Westminster Hall will be opened to the public for a brief service led by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
Officers from the Household Division, the King’s Body Guards of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, the King’s Body Guard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, and The King’s Body Guard the Yeomen of the Guard will maintain a 24-hour watch surrounding the catafalque.
Thousands of people have gathered to pay their respects at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh this afternoon, and the Queen’s coffin will depart for London this evening, followed by Princess Anne.
Following a touching vigil with her four children last night, Her Majesty’s casket will stay in the cathedral until 5 o’clock today.
She will then be driven to Edinburgh Airport in a hearse after passing past a guard of honour established by the Royal Company of Archers and receiving a royal salute.
The Royal Regiment of Scotland will give the Queen a royal salute as soon as she arrives. The coffin will subsequently be transported aboard the aircraft by a Royal Air Force bearer party.
Princess Anne will once again fly with her mother on the aircraft to London after taking the cortege from the Queen’s favourite Balmoral to Edinburgh on Sunday.
The Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland, the Very Reverend Professor David Fergusson, will be there with her.
At 6 o’clock, the RAF jet is supposed to take off from the runway in Edinburgh before landing at RAF Northolt in West London at 6 o’clock.
According to a senior member of the Metropolitan Police, police in the days leading up to the Queen’s burial would be a “hugely complicated operation.”
Thousands converged on the capital after the monarch’s death, and hundreds of more cops had already been sent in, according to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy on Sunday.
In order to pay their respects to the Queen when she lays in state, which is anticipated to begin on Wednesday, a large number of mourners are expected to stand in line for hours, maybe even overnight.
Security will be a bigger worry since world leaders will also be travelling to the UK for the state burial on Monday.
Our responsibility, according to Mr. Cundy, is to make sure that these series of events will be secure and safe.
You can understand how very detailed and highly sophisticated our police operation is.
We are thus always alert to a wide range of possible events. We are aware that, at this moment, not only the eyes of the United Kingdom, but also the whole globe will be on London.
The Queen’s coffin will be transferred from the aeroplane to the waiting state heard by the bearer party before starting the road trip down the A40 towards Buckingham Palace.
The King’s Guard will form another guard of honour as the casket approaches the Grand Entrance of the palace, where tens of thousands of mourners are anticipated to once again throng the streets.
The coffin will be transported to the Bow Room by a bearer party from the Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, where it will be placed on trestles in front of King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla.
Her coffin will be guarded by a rotating group of Chaplains to the King, who were previously chosen by Queen Elizabeth, while it is placed in the Bow Room.
Before the casket is anticipated to be taken to the Throne Room, where loyal palace personnel may pay their respects, the King and other royals may grieve there.
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery will carry the coffin to the Palace of Westminster by gun carriage as the Queen stays at Buckingham Palace into Wednesday morning.
In a ritual known as the Vigil of the Princes, King Charles III, Anne, the Princess Royal, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward each stood on one of the four corners of the wood casket with their heads bent.
Throughout the 10-minute vigil, the Duke of York sometimes closed his eyes while the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex kept their gazes averted to the ground. As members of the public walked by, the King kept his hands clasped and watched the floor with moistening eyes.
The Royal Company of Archers was on watch with four suited members wearing long-feathered caps and carrying quivers and arrows, and they were joined by the King and his family.
The crowd was momentarily kept back so that the royals could take their position. Thousands of people had been flowing past the casket all afternoon. Once the vigil got going, however, they kept walking by, giving them a unique vantage point on the momentous occasion.
Some of the crowd bowed as they passed the King; others walked gravely past with their heads lowered. While Anne and Edward appeared in uniform, Charles was dressed in his Balmoral lappelle and the Prince Charles Edward Stuart tartan.
Despite having participated in the Falklands War, Andrew wore simply a morning suit since he was forbidden from donning a uniform in front of the public due to the aftermath from his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Only during the second Vigil of the Princes in Westminster Hall would the Duke of York be allowed to appear in military garb.
Since King George V’s demise in 1936, the custom has been observed, and Princess Anne is now the first female monarch to partake.
The vigil, which started at 7.46 p.m. and ended at 7.56 p.m. in the historic cathedral, was attended by the Queen Consort and the Countess of Wessex, who were seated on chairs next to the coffin.
The coffin will stay at St Giles’ for 24 hours before being transported to London to lay in state. The Archers have been guarding the casket on 20-minute shifts.
Both when Charles entered the church and when he left, the throng applauded. They recorded video and photos as he passed by and exclaimed, “Here he is.” This is him. The King is here.
As people gathered at the barricades to see him, Charles waved at them. I missed him earlier and travelled up from Glasgow to meet him, one lady was overheard saying. After waiting for five hours, I at last saw him.