[Epoch Times, September 22, 2022](The Epoch Times British Reporter Station reported) From the evening of September 14 to the morning of the 19th, the coffin of the Queen of England was parked in Westminster Hall (Westminster Hall) of the Parliament Building. More than 250,000 people are estimated to have lined up to pay their respects to the Queen’s coffin.
At its peak, the line was nearly seven miles long, with people queuing for 24 hours to get a chance to walk past the Queen’s coffin.
The procession starts from the Houses of Parliament and heads south to Lambeth Bridge, then continues along the south bank of the Thames, passing London Bridge, Tower Bridge and ending at Southwark Park. Barricades were set up in the park for queues, which at one point stretched for miles.
On the morning of the 16th, as the capacity in Southwark Park reached its limit, it was temporarily suspended to allow more people to enter the park to line up. But this did not affect people coming to line up at all. There was a long line outside the park gate just to be able to enter the park.
The charity St John Ambulance, which provides medical services to those in the queue, said about 2,012 people in the queue needed to be cared for. Over five days, they took 240 people in line to hospital for treatment.
People who came to pay their respects came from all walks of life, from men and women, to the elderly and children. As people passed the Queen’s coffin, some bowed, some curtseyed, some crossed their chests, and others paused to take a closer look at the coffin of the only Queen in their lives.
Queue twice in a row
At around 10:40 p.m. on the 18th, the queues to pay their respects to the coffin were closed. The final mourner was a woman, an active duty member of the British Air Force. She said she was “proud” and had the opportunity to show her admiration for the Queen to show her heartfelt feelings for her.
She also said it was the second time she had lined up to pay her respects to the Queen’s coffin. The first time, she started to line up at 5 pm on Sunday (18th) and saw the Queen’s coffin at 1:15 in the middle of the night.
She said: “The first time I walked into that hall, I felt I needed to walk again, so I was the last one. The first time was too fast and I felt it wasn’t enough. I was at the end of the line and kept going. Stay last because I don’t want to take someone else’s place.”
She queued for a total of 14 hours, which she said was “well worth it”. She also stayed to watch the Queen’s funeral procession near the Houses of Parliament.
96-year-old man standing in line
Probably the oldest in the line was a 96-year-old veteran. He is the same age as the Queen and feels “like growing up with her”.
He said that in 1936, when he was nine years old, he and his parents visited the coffin of the Queen’s grandfather George V. At that time, he queued for several hours. “This time the queue felt very familiar and people were very friendly.”
Former star Beckham also queued for 14 hours to see the Queen’s coffin.
Scientists study queuing culture
Queuing is a culture that the British are very proud of, which began in the Victorian era of England. People think queuing is the fairest. Coinciding with the opportunity of hundreds of thousands of people queuing, British scientists rushed to the queuing scene and actively collected various research materials.
According to The Times, this includes 15 psychologists from universities across the UK who study crowd psychology, including experts from the Universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Sussex, Dundee and others. The research includes the dynamics and behavior of queuing crowds.
Stephen Reicher, a psychology professor at the University of St Andrews, said the ordeal of queuing was seen by those in line as part of the experience: “That difficulty is one of the reasons they’re Determination. It makes sense because it’s hard. ‘The Queen can serve us 70 years, and we can spend seven hours on her.'”
He also said that through observation, he found that only part of the crowd in the queue were “hardcore fans” of the royal family. Many people went to pay homage to the Queen’s coffin because the Queen’s death reminded them of their deceased relatives, expressing it by mourning the Queen. Their own grief, and not just mourning the queen, some came to “be part of history”. ◇
Responsible editor: Chen Bin