Has anyone been to the Lying In State and wished they hadn't bothered?

[Reallybadidea]

Just being nosey really. I'm not the most patient of people and can't imagine queuing for hours for anything. Has anyone been and found it a bit of a letdown once they got to the end (beginning?) of The Queue?

I have been however I didn’t have to wait in the long queue. My DH is disabled so we
went via the accessible route.

i found it very moving, it was very grand and I felt like I was not only part of a historic moment but also felt like I was witnessing something from times gone by , no phones and silence and you spend a few minutes once in the room before you take your turn. I was a little emotional and I also saw the change of guard. I am glad I went.

However not sure how I would have felt if I had queued for 13 hrs though

But you know how long it would take?! Bizarre it’s all over the news.

I've read a demographic analysis of the queue. Wish I could find it.

@Doingprettywellthanks I think your 'guesses' are pretty hazardous.

Great question! Haven't been, but it looks like so many people.

I wonder how many people so far (as a % of the population) that would be interesting!

Has anyone been and found it a bit of a letdown once they got to the end (beginning?) of The Queue?

So far, nobody seems to have said so.

How on Earth did they manage to organise and risk assess such a hellish-sounding school trip for two coachloads of teens within a week? Professional curiosity really, even getting the forms back in takes longer than that at my school.

@Wanttoconnectwithmorepeople because it suits the narrative. These are the very cap doffers and forelock tuggers that MN loves to hate. It's always rather annoying to them, I think, to see how many there are.

Every single person in the queue knows how long it will take as they join. There are queues for the queue.

It just doesn't seem to occur to the posters criticising that these are just ordinary folk who want to go. I'm rather in awe of them.

not a bloody chance I would make my teen go on this nonsense of a school trip if they didn’t want to

Yes like you can make a Y10 or Y11 go on a trip like that if they didn't want to.

😂

Speak for yourself!

i notice the live stream mutes everytime a baby cries

Shed load of stuff my year 11 doesn’t want to do.

He does it because I’m his mum, he respects me, and I am telling him to do it

I know 2 that have queued. Both finished work in London, joined the queue at about 5.30pm and got to pass the coffin in the early hours of the morning.

Both said they were very glad to have done it. Both are educated and financially comfortable people.

I think there's a very broad demographic of people who are choosing to do this. I can understand why they do and in a way I would like to as well but the length of queuing is too much for me to realistically manage. I paid my respects by laying flowers at another Royal residence which we are quite local to.

an old friend went on thursday,
even shared a frame of her in there from the live stream.

It just doesn't seem to occur to the posters criticising that these are just ordinary folk who want to go. I'm rather in awe of them.

Totally this.

Complete joy suckers out in force.

These poor little low income. plebs who who don't know their own minds and don't even do it right when they get there. Dragging their poor squealing children behind them.

What complete arse.

He does it because I’m his mum, he respects me, and I am telling him to do it

Great stuff👍🏻

Not in London. Fewer than half of Londoners are white British.

Yes, I realise people are travelling from other places. But you'd expect it to be skewed towards londoners.

Not just me that noticed it then. Spending g money she can’t really afford 😆 oh my days, did she wear her best moth eaten thread bare clothes too?

I would have liked to have gone but couldn't justify £100 on train tickets and teen DD doesn't like crowds so wouldn't have liked it so we didn't.

I've watched some of the feed and have been struck by the diversity of the demographic and the different ways in which people acknowledged and paid respect.

Many of them look very tired indeed and I was glad the Chelsea Pensioners (en masse) had priority but don't think that MPs should have guest tickets, unless they were going to use them for eg 90+ year old constituents (doubtful)

I find it quite distasteful actually. Hundreds of thousands of people gawping at the coffin of a dead lady and her family while they are grieving. They may be royalty and but they are still human. Fair enough the funeral bring a public spectacle but this us a step too far in this day and age.

I be assume this was all agreed before her death but it’s sort of like people going to watch executions mentality and we should have progressed by now.

Paying respects = watching an execution.

🙄

Sorry I just think these people attending want their brains testing. Each to their own I suppose but why on earth would you CHOOSE to wait 12 hours in a queue without facilities to see for a couple of minutes only a coffin of a woman born into a highly privileged family to whom you are not related and who died a natural death at a ripe old age. Please give me one comprehensible reason?! Particular if you never bothered or attempted to see her whilst she was alive. Is it voyeurism or grief vampirism? Why do you have to be there in person to pay your respects or were the royal family taking attendance? Were you just hoping to get on TV? Hoping to get a piece of the action to sell? FOMO? Morbid fascination? I've worked for an aristocratic extremely wealthy family and believe you me they are just people with a lot lot of money which makes them far removed from the sort of everyday struggles or even endeavours the rest of us have as they have servants to cater to every whim. They do not give a rat's arse about the rest of us outside of public image. We are just the plebs. I seriously don't get it. And to those who say 'its history' so is the war in Ukraine but I bet you didn't attend that?! Honestly I am baffled? Please someone explain why you would willingly queue so long to see this 'spectacle' ?! I get fed up queuing more than 10 minutes in the supermarket so what is it that possess you..?

I find it quite distasteful actually. Hundreds of thousands of people gawping at the coffin of a dead lady and her family while they are grieving. They may be royalty and but they are still human. Fair enough the funeral bring a public spectacle but this us a step too far in this day and age.

Clearly never been to an Irish wake then.