“It’s been like this all morning,” grumbles a Flemish woman with a brightyellow helmet. Together with about twenty others she tries to participate in atour on a blue bicycle from London Bicycles. But there is little to cyclebetween Buckingham Palace, Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey. The area ishermetically sealed to cars. Cyclists and pedestrians are bound by tightroutes with many fences and few crossings.
London prepares for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, tomorrow at 12:00 Dutchtime at Westminster Abbey. Hundreds of heads of state, government leaders andother prominent figures are coming. In addition, up to a million people maycome to the city to experience as much as possible of the funeral and thesubsequent driving tour on the streets, in parks or in the pub.
According to the London police, this represents the largest security operationever for the city.
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Soldiers support the London police
At least 10,000 officers from across the United Kingdom are involved,supported by military personnel. The center where the ceremonies take place isfull of roadblocks. In order to guarantee safety as much as possible, theairspace will also be closed for the most part during the funeral.
According to security expert Simon Morgan, who was responsible for thesecurity of the royal family within the London police until a few years ago,the city is ready for this mega-operation: “The scripts for this day have beenset up for years and every major royal event in the city is It has been usedas a kind of training in recent decades, such as Princess Diana’s funeral in1997, or William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. All the knowledge gained fromthose moments comes in handy now.”
From attack to pickpockets
Morgan points out that Queen Elizabeth’s funeral is such a complicatedsecurity issue mainly because different kinds of threat come together: “Ofcourse everyone thinks of the possibility of a terrorist attack, with so manypublic figures together. But if at the same time there are a million people onthe road being on the street also means, for example, that there are morepickpockets active. All those aspects deserve the same attention, becauseeveryone who is in London on Monday deserves police protection.”
G. Keith Still, visiting professor of masses and behavior at the University ofSuffolk, reckons London can handle so many people: “London has experience withbig events, think of the 2012 Olympics. constantly monitor where it threatensto get too crowded. They see in time which metro stations or public placesthey have to close in that case, so that they can redirect people to anotherplace. If you expect such large crowds, you have to come up with a plan A,also have a plan B and C. The city has it.”
Two days in the cold
According to Still, it also matters what type of people come to the city:”Visitors to a funeral show different behavior than people who come for afootball match, for example. The biggest risk for the people who come toLondon on Monday is that they can overestimate themselves. That they think: Ican stand along the route for hours, that is not too much for me, while thatcould of course be the case for some. “
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Nathalie (left), Rachel (center) and Kim (right) have been waiting along theroute of the funeral since 5 a.m. on Saturday morning
To get ahead of Monday’s masses, Nathalie (49), Rachel (51) and Kim (59) havealready set up a camping chair in Parliament Square at 5 a.m. on Saturdaymorning. They are thus assured of a good spot along the route that the coffincontaining Queen Elizabeth’s remains will travel from Westminster Hall toWestminster Abbey.
They don’t care that they have to last more than two days in the open air. “Wehave chairs, we have sleeping bags and we make new friends: we are doingwell,” Rachel says. “Being in the cold for more than two days and withoutsleep is nothing compared to our queen’s more than seventy years of loyal