Mourners have been warned ‘do not set off’ to join the queue for the Queen’s lying in state.
The queue to see the Queen’s coffin is in its final full day as Westminster Hall will close to mourners at 6.30am on Monday.
It currently stretches more than five miles from Westminster to Southwark Park and a steady stream of mourners continues to join on Sunday morning under sunny but cold skies.
Queue times at 10am were 14 hours long and set to increase, although were significantly lower than when mourners were faced with a 24-hour wait on Friday to see the lying-in-state.
The department has said it will announce later on Sunday when entry to the queue will be closed. “To avoid disappointment, please do not set off to join the queue” said a spokesperson for the DCMS. The accessible queue has already been permanently closed.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including celebrities such as David Beckham, have made the slow, steady pilgrimage across central London to pay their respects to the late monarch over the past four days.
Members of the Royal Household have visited some of those waiting in the queue.
On Saturday, King Charles III and his heir Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, greeted mourners in Lambeth.
When told by one person that they had been waiting 13 hours, Prince William allegedly said: “Thirteen hours? You’re looking very good on thirteen hours.”
Guinness World Records has said the queue to see the Queen’s lying-in-state could be the longest ever.
At 6.30am on Monday morning, the lying in state will finish, and the Queen’s coffin will be taken on Procession to Westminster Abbey, where the state funeral will begin at 11:00. Around 2,000 guests are expected to attend.
