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Published:
3:00 PM September 19, 2022
The public viewing of the Queen’s lying in state ended at 6.30am on Monday (September 19), but some members of the public have expressed frustration at its management.
Access to the official queue ended on Sunday night but Pauline Pearce, who queued in central London for seven hours, said “constant misinformation” was given to those in the queue.
Ms Pearce, who was dubbed the “Hackney heroine” after she was filmed confronting rioters in 2011, said: “All of us have felt angry today.
“We were sent from one point to another and living off the false hope that they might let us in. At one point they said they were going to open the gates, then suddenly they didn’t. There was no empathy at all from the organisers.”
Read more: Live updates from the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II
Fiona Harper, 60, said organisation of the last night of queuing was characterised by ineptitude, with confusion about where wristbands were to be handed out.
Ms Harper said: “The problem was that we were all led to believe that you picked up your wristband at the end of the queue. So, we were queueing for an hour and a half before they told us there were no more wristbands.”
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport tweeted at 10.40pm on Sunday: “The queue to attend Her Majesty The Queen’s Lying-in-State is at final capacity and is now closed to new entrants Please do not attempt to join the queue Stewards will manage those already nearby Thank you for your understanding.”
Chrissy Heerey, a member of the Royal Air Force, and Sima Mansouri, 55, were the two last people into Westminster Hall on Monday morning and said they will be “friends forever” after meeting in the queue.
Ms Mansouri, from Croydon, told PA her love for the Queen dates back to the 1970s, when her cousin was a flower girl for a royal visit in Tehran.
“It was a boiling hot day and my poor cousin has got very fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes,” she said.
“The Queen came out of her plane and was more concerned with my cousin burning in the sun than being a royal.”
“She said: ‘Can someone please get this little girl out of the sun?’ Then she kissed her and grabbed the flowers. I thought it was amazing.”
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