Hyde Park to swell with 100,000 mourners for Her Majesty's farewell

EXCLUSIVE: Hyde Park to swell with 100,000 mourners for Her Majesty’s farewell with CAMPERS set to bag the best spots to watch funeral on four big screens from Sunday – with thousands more ready to view historic event across UK on Monday

• Over 100,000 people are expected to gather at Hyde Park on Monday to bid farewell to the Queen
• The park has already set up 4 big screens and food trucks as they expect campers to arrive early on Sunday
• Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey at 11am on Monday September 19
• The hour-long service will be attended by royals and other VIPs, and televised around the world

Hyde Park is expecting around 100,000 mourners on Monday as the country prepare to bid farewell to Her Majesty on the day of her funeral.

The royal park has already set up four big screens and food trucks as they expect campers to arrive early on Sunday to bag the best spots. 

Since the Queen’s death, roads around Buckingham Palace and Westminster have been marshalled by crews of security teams ensuring mourners are cordoned appropriately.

A Hyde Park SES site supervisor told the MailOnline that two stages have also been put up, but ‘no one knows what for’.

The supervisor also said that campers will be allowed as the land is public and that consequently no one would stop them. 

Speaking to the MailOnline, the warden said that 100,000 people could ‘easily’ show up to the park and, pointing to the greenery, said: ‘Put it this way, you know all that green grass? You’re not going to get a blade of it on Monday’. 

He added that the number of people will easily surpass the 62,000 that showed on the day of Harry and Meghan’s wedding. 

Hyde Park is expecting around 100,000 mourners on Monday as the country prepare to bid farewell to Her Majesty on the day of her funeral. Pictured: Hyde Park yesterday as mourners watched screens broadcasting the procession

The royal park has already set up four big screens and food trucks as they expect campers to arrive early on Sunday to bag the best spots

Speaking to a MailOnline reporter, the warden said that 100,000 people could ‘easily’ show on Monday and, pointing to the greenery, said: ‘Put it this way, you know all that green grass? You’re not going to get a blade of it on Monday’

Thousands of mourners are set to gather all over on Monday 19 September to watch the Queen’s funeral on giant screens across the UK.

People will have the opportunity to watch the funeral along the procession route or at various screening sites across the country.

The Queen’s state funeral will ‘unite people across the globe and resonate with people of all faiths’, according to The Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, the man in charge of the historic occasion has said. 

On Monday, the funeral will begin at 9am with the chiming of Big Ben.

Arriving at 11am, the late Queen’s coffin will be taken on a gun carriage from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey, where hundreds of world leaders and members of foreign royal families will be present.

At 11.55am the nation will then observe a two minute silence following The Last Post.

People will have the opportunity to watch the funeral along the procession route or at various screening sites across the country

After the service at Westminster Abbey, the coffin will travel in procession to Wellington Arch, behind Buckingham Palace, where it will be placed in a hearse to make the journey to Windsor by road.

Along this procession route, people will be able to gather and pay their respects. 

In addition, cities all over the UK have set up big screens to watch the event.

In London, Hyde Park have been setting up plenty of big screens ahead of the event, which will start the viewing at 11am and operate on a first come first serve basis. 

A collection of fast-food vans have also been set up in anticipation of large crowds. 

In other big cities across the UK, Manchester City Council has announced that the service will be projected onto screens across the city from 9am. Screens will be put up in Cathedral Gardens, Exchange Square and inside the Manchester Cathedral.

In Birmingham, the funeral will be broadcast in Centenary Square in a bid to offer the people of Birmingham a place to reflect and come together to pay their respects.

The Royal Shakespeare Company also intends on screening the funeral at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. 

It announced: ‘The building will open at 10am, with access to the auditorium from 10.15am ahead of the funeral service between 11am-noon. It is expected that the screening will end at 1pm, with the building closing at 1.30pm.’

Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park will also broadcast the service, in front of the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen rested in her coffin only a few days ago.

King Charles looks tearful as he marches with Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Anne, Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence yesterday. The family will march behind the coffin again after the state funeral on Monday

Members of the public file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard with the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign’s orb and sceptre, lying in state on the catafalque in Westminster Hall,

The service will be streamed from various main squares across the country, including Old Eldon Square in Newcastle, Millennium Square in Leeds and Queen Victoria Square in Hull.

Sheffield Cathedral and Sheffield’s Curzon Cinema also said they will broadcast the funeral as well as Bradford Cathedral from 10am.   

Vue cinemas have also announced a UK-wide free screening of the Queen’s funeral.   

The company told customers: ‘On Monday 19 September, our UK venues will be screening the live broadcast of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

‘Seats will be free of charge and our retail offering will be limited to complimentary bottled water during the broadcast, with no other snacks or drinks available for purchase. No other content will be shown on this day. Reserve your seat for free at myvue.com/announcement.’    

The hearse will arrive at Windsor Castle via The Long Walk, and will be taken into St George’s Chapel for the televised committal service attended by the Royal family.  

The Earl Marshal said that at 3.06pm, the state hearse will approach Shaw Farm Gate on Albert Road, Windsor, and join the procession which will be in position.

At 3.10pm the procession will step off via Albert Road, Long Walk, Cambridge Gate, Cambridge Drive, George IV Gate, Quadrangle (South and West sides), Engine Court, Norman Arch, Chapel Hill, Parade Ground and Horseshoe Cloister Arch.

Members of the public stand in the queue, opposite the skyscrapers of the City of London, as they wait in line this morning

People queue to pay their respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II during the lying-in-state at Westminster Hall in London today

At approximately 3.40 pm the King and other members of the royal family who are walking in the procession join it at the Quadrangle on the North side as it passes into Engine Court.

Members of the Queen’s, the King’s and the Prince of Wales’s households will be positioned at the rear of the coffin.

The Queen Consort with the Princess of Wales, and the Duchess of Sussex with the Countess of Wessex will again follow by car.

At 3.53pm, the procession will halt at the bottom of the West Steps of St George’s Chapel in Horseshoe Cloister.

The bearer party will lift the coffin from the state hearse, from where it will be carried in procession up the West Steps.

At 4pm a committal service conducted by the Dean of Windsor will then begin, and will also be televised around the world.

King Charles and his closest family will return to the chapel for a private family burial service, where – as the late Queen did for her father – the monarch will scatter earth upon the coffin. This will happen at 7.30pm.

Source: Read Full Article