Queen's Funeral

Tp pay tribute to the late Queen, do we need to book time slot to enter the the state?

Tp pay tribute to the late Queen, do we need to book time slot to enter the the state?

No.

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/lying-in-state

My guess would be just to line up. This would be both an interesting time and probably frustrating time to be in England but I wish I could do it. These are those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Lines for the Queen Mother, when she laid in State however many years ago, got up to 24 hours' wait. I can't even imagine how long the lines for the Queen will be.

We had a frustrating time getting to Victoria Station this (Saturday) afternoon. Being encumbered by suitcases, we planned to take the Piccadilly Line from Holborn to Green Park and make the easy change to the Victoria line for the last hop to Victoria Station. There was no sign of a problem at Holborn (I had specifically looked for weekend service-reduction postings and seen none, and no announcements were being made), but when we got to Green Park they were announcing no Victoria Line trains would be stopping there because of crowding in the Tube station and outside.

I knew Victoria Station wasn't that bad a walk, so we exited the station and asked one of the police officers which direction to head for Victoria Station; I had no data service on my phone, I guess because the demand in the area was overwhelming. There were a lot of people in the area around the station; we never heard what event had attracted them.

Unfortunately, the directions we were given sent us right to the gates of Buckingham Palace, which was the nucleus of the problem. There were thousands of people almost but not quite totally blocking the sidewalks (apparently waiting for something to happen), so progress was extremely slow, not that we were able to head where we wanted to go anyway, due to temporary fences everywhere. In the end, we had to walk almost all the way back to Green Park--not by the same route we had originally taken--before we were able to turn left and find our way to Victoria Station via Hyde Park. The whole trip took over 90 minutes (a ,Iona time to pull suitcases through that sort of crowd), so we made our train only due to an unusually early start.

Since I don't know what caused the gathering in the area around Buckingdom Palace today, I don't know how likely it is to be repeated over the next few days, so I can only recommend that visitors be aware of the possibility of restricted movement around the Palace (and near Westminster Abbey) and reductions in Tube service in the coming days. Allow a lot of extra time if you are heading to one of the in-town train stations or to Vicoria Coach Station with a timed ticket in hand.

The TfL website is currently showing warnings about service reductions.

acraven……it was the thousands of people paying their respect to the late Queen Elizabeth.

I'd love to read a trip report from acraven, who is such a well-informed, observant, and conscientious traveler, about what it was like to be in London at this time. As I wrote in another thread, the tradeoff for the disruption and inconvenience to our plans is the chance to experience some of what the British people are going through as they mourn the Queen and transition to a new King.

Honestly, except for the reports on news websites and the crowds near the Palace, I didn't notice anything unusual except for a good number of people carrying flowers. I do tend to be a goal-focussed, oblivious traveler, and I was spending most of the day in the (very busy) British Museum.

The crowds near the Palace were mostly standing in place, as if in antcipation of something they expected to happen. People were being respectful, not pushing or shoving. The atmosphere wasn't festive, of course, but I'd otherwise say it appeared people were waiting for a parade to pass by.

There have been unscheduled appearances by members of the Royal Family outside Buckingham Palace and Windsor over the last couple of days so they may have been waiting in case one of those happened. Or just that they wanted to be there.

This area is likely to be busy until after the funeral as well as Westminster when the lying in state begins.

Official TfL travel advice over the next few days:

Tube services will be running as normal, however some stations will be busier than usual, and some short-term safety measures such as queuing, closures, non-stopping or changes to the way customers enter or exit a station may be necessary

Customers are encouraged to avoid Green Park Tube station if possible, due to high numbers of customers passing through, and to keep capacity for customers who need step-free access. Other Tube stations, such as Victoria, Piccadilly Circus and St James's Park, are within a short walking distance of Buckingham Palace

Other stations expected to be busier include: Westminster, Charing Cross, Embankment, Victoria, Waterloo, St James's Park, Lancaster Gate, Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch

The Elizabeth line will run a special service with 12 trains per hour on the central section (Paddington-Abbey Wood) on Sunday 18 September to provide further transport options for customers

Due to road closures, some buses will stop short of their destination or will be on diversion until after the events. They may also run to a reduced frequency

Some cycle routes will be impacted by road closures, such as C3

Santander Cycles will operate as normal, but some docking stations may be closed

London River services will operate as normal