An official queue tracker has been released for members of the public lining up to see the Queen Lying-in-State. During this period, Her Majesty The Queen 's closed coffin rests on a raised platform, which is called a catafalque, inside Westminster Hall.
It offers members of the public an opportunity to file past and pay their respects to Britain's longest-reigning monarch, who died at Balmoral on Thursday, September 8. The Palace of Westminster opened to the public at 5pm on Wednesday, September 14 and will be open until 6:30am on the day of the funeral, which is Monday, September 19. You can read more on what Lying-in-State means here.
Mourners have been turning out in droves for the opportunity to say a personal farewell. Three hours before the doors opened on Wednesday the line already stretched far past Westminster Bridge and beyond County Hall, by 10am on Thursday morning, the queue was three miles long.
Read more: All the rules on how you can see Queen Elizabeth's coffin in Westminster
Official guidance warns: "Please note that the queue is expected to be very long. You will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down, as the queue will keep moving. Please consider this before you decide to attend or bring children with you. The queue may close early to ensure as many visitors as possible can enter the Palace before the Lying-in-State period comes to an end."
To help members of the public to navigate the queues, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has set up a tracker. The live feed on YouTube tells you how long the queue currently is, the nearest landmark and the what3words code is.
At the time of writing this article, the queue was approximately 3.5 miles long. To visit the Lying-in-State, you need to join the back of the queue, where you will be given a coloured and numbered wristband.
More information on the queue, what you can and can't bring, and visiting times, can be found here.
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