Queuing for the Queen
In Memory of her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral is due to take place in Westminster Abbey on Monday 19th September. And with that, the country prepares itself for the reign of Charles III
The Queen is due to be lying in state for almost 5 days, with mourners able to visit over this period. But only if they can make it through “The Queue”
People have been queuing up from Southwark Park in South East London to Westminster Hall for their chance to pay their respects
It’s expected that up to 750,000 may go through the queue to see the Queen lying-in-state (the official figure will be released after the funeral)
But how long have they been waiting?
The maximum length of the queue is 10 miles (16.1 km) which includes a 6.6 mile walk along the south embankment and a 3 mile zig-zag queue in Southwark Park
As of the morning of Sunday 18th, it would take someone 13.5 hours to get from the back to Westminster Hall
And according to the Government’s official tracker, the length of the queue reached as high as 24 hours at one point
Is this the longest queue in history?
British Monarch’s have drawn huge crowds in the past. After the death of King George VI (Queen Elizabeth II’s father), over 300,000 people came to view his coffin as he was lying in state in February 1952 - all of whom formed part of “The Great Queue”
Up until now, it was believed that the longest line of people queuing at once was 30,000 Russians who queued for the opening of the first McDonald’s in the USSR in 1990
And there is a World Record for the number of people in a queue for the toilet at the same time, which was set in 2009, although this was in the form of multiple queues at once. During the event for World Water Day, 100,000 people in 80 countries formed “toilet queues” to highlight the lack of basic sanitation rights in the developing world
And how much do the British really queue?
Of course, the British have a reputation for queuing, and a study in 2017 found that the average Brit spends 52 days of their lives queuing
The same study found that the country as a whole spends 333 million hours a year in queues, which is half an hour a month per person
Some other British attractions also have long queues, including the London Eye (2.5 hours), the queue to get tickets to Wimbledon (40 hours) and the queue at a ticket office in Portsmouth to get tickets to see the Beatles (90 hours)
The most common reasons that people in Britain say they queue are when:
- in line at the Supermarket checkout (76% of respondents)
- at the Post Office (56%)
- clothes shopping (36%)
- ordering a drink in a pub / bar (21%)
And what do people who are queuing hate more than anything? Apparently, its when people cut in the middle of the queue instead of joining the back (69% of respondents to the same study)
You can check out more of our GoodStats on Britain and the Royal Family here:
Source: The Guardian; Catherine Pillay; Guinness World Records; The Mirror; BBC; Deadline.com; QMinder;
