I went to London yesterday, I don't live far and went with the low expectations to just be part of the crowd wanting to pay their respects, however that ended up looking.
I would love to hear how other people found it, and what your thoughts were on the whole thing.
For me, I spent quite a bit of time at Parliament Square. I got asked quite a few times by people why I was waiting there and if something was going to happen/someone was coming, as if just wanting to be there wasn't enough and I wanted to get something out of it (i.e. see someone famous). I did end up seeing some royals driving past, the first time I videoed it with my phone, I'm not sure why it just felt like instinct to film it? I ended up feeling guilty about filming them, as if they were an exhibit in a museum rather than a human being in mourning. The next time some of the royal family drove past I did not film them.
I intended to join the queue to lay flowers at Buckingham Palace, but it was much busier than I could ever have anticipated. After around 20 minutes of being able to move quite literally just a few steps forward every 5 minutes, I left the queue. I'm usually fine in crowds, but it felt quite claustrophobic, especially as it was a one-way system so once you got in a queue you were kind of stuck. Instead, I just went into St James' Park to see the flowers people had left around some trees. I wasn't the only one struggling with the queues, a child around 7 years old was crying to their mum that they had been walking all day and they were exhausted and wanted to go home. There were quite a few parents taking pictures of their children in front of flowers, one made me laugh 'James, put your arms by your side now. If you don't stop being silly we're not going to M&M World'
All in all, it felt like a weird day. I would love to hear how other people found going into London this week? I think it feels conflicting because the circumstances are sad and mournful, but also an important moment in history that people want to experience and feel a part of, and remember with photos and videos.