Mourning or gawping – London locks down for a week.

Posted on September 14, 2022 by henry tapper

Against my better judgement , I went to the UK pensions awards with a party of guests, the feeble reason being that Pension PlayPen were up for an award. It was a nice evening spent  with friends and clients , but it took place in the most bizarre context.

Only yards from the hermetically sealed ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, the Queen’s coffin was driven down Park Lane , around the south east corner of Hyde Park and down Constitution Hill on its way to it lying in state for the rest of the week.

Prior to our meal we had a minute’s silence and had God Save the King played to us (no-one sang), during the meal we were asked to stand while the unseen, unheard , cortege passed the hotel. We stood again in silence- I wondered why.

Then we spent four hours getting drunk and congratulating each other on our services to each other. It was an evening that made no sense in a capital that is making no sense.

Locking down the two cities

To get to the Hilton, I took a Santander cycle and was diverted, like all traffic along Piccadilly to the Hyde Park roundabout where – in the rain – were gathered a multitude of people keen to see at first hand the motorcade. I can only imagine the numbers lining the road down to Buckingham Palace.

When I emerged (still in the rain) onto Park Lane at close to midnight, I had to make my way back to the City past roads now closed to traffic by massive steel gates Everywhere there were police vans, lorries loaded with pedestrian barriers. Several times I was asked to ride my bike along the pavement. As  I passed Trafalgar Square and cycled down the closed Embankment, I was the only person going anywhere!

London was being locked down. The boss of the Metropolitan Police sees the Queen’s lying in state as a  ‘massive challenge’ for police. 750,000 people are predicted to enter into London by public transport.

The BBC are now advising the million or so mourners on where to join the queue to get to see the coffin.

The walk is about 4 miles, but the total length of the queue is expected to extend to 10 miles (with all diversion) At average pace that might be achieved in 90 minutes, but at the pace of the queue, it will take up to 30 hours. The BBC website is explicit

People are being warned they will need to stand for many hours – possibly overnight – with little opportunity to sit down, as the queue will be constantly moving.

There will be mobile toilets along the route. There are special facilities for the disabled.

What is the meaning of this?

This morning , as the rain fell, people were already in the queue.

Why are people putting themselves through penance? I guess medieval peasants tilling their fields alongside the Camino Santiago asked the same question.  People join pilgrimages for grace and to demonstrate their devotion to some greater good. Sometimes they just get swept along in a tide of emotion, that’s not necessarily good.

Reading the reports of people who have already queued in Edinburgh, I recognise I am more like one of the plowmen tilling than a pilgrim. I guess I have crops to sow and a harvest to reap. So what of the crowds, estimated to be bigger than those that came to London for the Olympics that will be in the queue and out?

Those crash barriers are apparently there to protect them against “international terrorism” and the public are being warned to guard against being fleeced by petty criminals (another echo of pilgrimages in the past).

Clearly people feel impelled to “pay their respects” but to be herded , to be frightened, to be rained on , to suffer all these discomforts to be part of history?

There is a designated day for the funeral, it is a day we will turn our minds to the Queen, but between now and then, for a nation to cease tilling and sowing and reaping so that they can gawp at each other and at the cameras of their phones strikes me as a self-indulgence we cannot afford.

We have had all summer off, now it is September and we are back at school. We can mourn in our hearts but we must work too. Some of what I saw last night looked more like gawping than mourning.

Whether you come to gawp or mourn here is the guidance

About henry tapper

Founder of the Pension PlayPen,, partner of Stella, father of Olly . I am the Pension Plowman
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2 Responses to Mourning or gawping – London locks down for a week.

  1. Brian G says:
    September 14, 2022 at 7.32

    I too wonder what people think they are achieving by this herdlike “paying respect “.

    Reply
  2. Tim Simpson says:
    September 15, 2022 at 7.32

    Hello Henry,
    I wonder if riding a bicycle kept you remote from the sentiment…!

    I had to attend a meeting in the road Great Scotland Yard (it runs between Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue) at 11:00 yesterday.

    I travelled up by train (10:15) from Eltham to Charing Cross. The platform was full of middle-aged and elderly people all carrying flowers. Not having been on a train for two years, I didn’t immediately appreciate what I was witnessing. It was a single middle-aged lady who had stuff in bags and a suitcase intending to camp out to watch the movement of the coffin from the Palace to Westminster Hall that alerted me to it. She felt it was the least she could do after what the Queen had done for us. There was certainly no feeling in that carriage, given that others boarded at the intermediate stops that they were off to a ‘beano’. The sentiment was obvious if not tangible.

    During the mid-1970s I used to wonder why we continued with the annual Cenotaph ceremoney. Being the first generation of this Country that has never been called to arms (and thrilled about it) I am pleased to say that I have since seen the error of my ways.
    Yes, News International etc do hold the frailties of the Royal Family up to ridicule but then, how many others would have ‘stuck to their guns’ to see it through as has the Queen and Prince Philip. It is good news that so many recognise the fact.
    Kind regards,
    Tim Simpson

    Reply

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