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Original poster

Anyone go to Buckingham Palace today (Sat 10th)

11 replies

rosyroses · 10/09/2022 20:22

Hello, did anyone go to Buckingham Palace today and if so was there a long queue to get to the Palace?

I know floral tributes are being left in green park now. Hoping to go tomorrow and bring 2 young children so any advice would be great. Directions, approx timings today, anything helpful much appreciated!

We're planning to head to green park station and make our way down from there.

OP posts:

Wafflesnsniffles · 10/09/2022 20:32

No idea re your actual question as I dont live in London. I definitely suggest you dont add to the pile of cellophane and dead flowers that will go to landfill though - old folk in your local old peoples home would be able to genuinely appreciate some flowers.

I love that people want to show respect but I hate all the waste!

Karatema · 10/09/2022 20:33

I'm seriously considering going to see the coffin on the Catafalque but otherwise I will stay away! It's much too crowded.

SavingsThreads · 10/09/2022 20:33

The queue starts at Hyde Park Corner was approx 3 hours today.

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generalh · 10/09/2022 20:37

No.

Circleoffifths · 10/09/2022 20:41

I was there today at lunchtime and walked through Green Park to see the flowers. There are staff at the floral tribute helping to remove cellophane. There were crowds but I saw no queues. People were milling about freely.

KatRee · 10/09/2022 20:49

We went to St James Park underground this afternoon, walked through the Park to the mall and towards the top of the mall got caught in a massive bottleneck. They had closed the road, I think because visitors were coming and going from the palace, which maybe won't be happening tomorrow. With a bit of determination you could get to the grass verges by the memorial roundabout and see the palace, but not actually get to the railings or anything and there was really nothing to see except media tents and lots of people who aren't quite sure what to do with themselves and the flowers they'd brought! Flowers that had previously been left on the Victoria memorial were being removed- there were no flowers on the railings of the palace itself, so presumably they'd already been removed. I understand they want people to leave them in Green Park instead, but there was no signposting or crowd control- because the road was blocked a lot of people were standing there and everyone thought everyone else was waiting for something important to happen. I guess if you're wanting to pay respects and leave flowers, the best thing is just to go to Green Park, but be prepared for crowds and bottlenecks rather than orderly queues

Original poster

rosyroses · 10/09/2022 20:49

Thanks so much for the responses. I think we'll chance it. Such a big moment in history and we can get to Buckingham Palace from where we live in 45 minutes. The kids are at an age where they may or may not remember this so would like to take them in since we live relatively close to see the floral tributes.

OP posts:

NeurologicallySpeaking · 10/09/2022 20:57

Right you can do this! We live in London so easier but we went to Charing Cross from home, walked up The Mall (only do this if you want to see the flags etc and the palace from that angle as the police are holding crowds at points) and then were able to lay flowers at the front gate.

But two points

if you aren't bothered about walking up the Mall, go along Whitehall and then up Birdcage Walk. This gets you to the actual point that the queue to get to the front of the palace starts. The Mall bit isn't necessary. We walked back that way and it was dead.
don't go middle of the day depending on how far away you live. We arrived at 7pm at the queue right next to the palace and only had to wait 20 mins at that point.

We took my daughter who is 8. Some people had buggies but it was v busy so I would avoid that if you can.

GeorgeTheFirst · 10/09/2022 20:57

If your kids are young, go early? I was there around 9am today and it was fine. But as I left there was a stream of people coming from Green Park tube and I can well imagine that crowds started to build up. There is nothing to see at the Palace, the focus is the flowers in Green Park

Original poster

rosyroses · 11/09/2022 07:06

Thank you. All very useful info. Will report back later on if it might help anyone tomorrow but things may be much quieter during the week with work and school.

Unfortunately we can't go early this morning as we have other commitments we can't get out of otherwise we probably would have been on our way in now.

There was a thread on here the other day and someone work was involved with The Queen lying in state and they expected queues for this to be 7 miles long!

OP posts:

MrsLargeEmbodied · 11/09/2022 07:07

in our area we were told no cellephane on the royal family's instructions.

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