Huge queues formed outside a Cardiff supermarket shortly after it reopened following the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty’s funeral took place at 11am on Monday in Westminster Abbey in London.
That was followed by a procession through parts of London before the hearse reached the Queen’s final resting place at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. There, a committal service took place at around 4.15pm, ending shortly before 5pm.
With the eyes of the nation and indeed the globe glued to live broadcasts of Monday’s events – the first funeral of a monarch in the modern age – shops and businesses across Wales and the rest of the UK closed for the majority of the day. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters emailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
Read more: I went to the Queen’s funeral and got a close-up view of a moment of history
In the days after the Queen’s death on September 8 it was announced that the day of her funeral would be a bank holiday with schools also closed up and down the country. Most supermarkets have also been closed with Lidl, Morrisons, Iceland, Co-op, M&S, and Aldi deciding to shut all branches throughout the day.
Large Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores across Wales have also been shut all day but smaller stores (Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local) announced plans to reopen at 5pm after the main proceedings of the Queen’s funeral had concluded. One of those stores was the Tesco Express store in the Cathays area of Cardiff. The store reopened at 5pm on Monday having previously announced: “To allow our colleagues to pay their respects to Her Majesty The Queen we will be changing our opening hours on Monday, September 19.”
Shortly after reopening scores of people headed straight for the supermarket as a large queue formed on the pavement in Cathays Terrace and around the corner onto the adjacent May Street. One bystander said there were up to 40 people queuing outside the supermarket waiting to get in around half an hour after it had reopened.
Most supermarkets normally open on a traditional bank holiday but the fact so many have not on Monday reflects the magnitude of the occasion. Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral service was the first state funeral of a monarch since 1952 when her father King George VI was buried.
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