Floral tributes in Green Park

A memorable and moving day as we joined the crowds in London on a day leading up to the Queen’s state funeral on Monday. The journey there and back was surprisingly smooth and uncrowded with plenty of room on the trains. I expect Monday will be different.

We walked from Victoria to Parliament Square to see Westminster Abbey then crossed Westminster Bridge and to the Archbishop’s Palace Gardens where we stopped for lunch. Crossing Lambeth Bridge we watched the queue to view the Queen lying in state. Earlier in the day the queue had been stopped and it was rumoured that the wait was up to 24 hours.

From Lambeth Bridge we walked along Millgate and St Margaret’s Street back to Parliament Square, pausing outside Westminster Hall to pay our respects.

We continued on down Whitehall, through Horseguards and onto The Mall following the route of the coffin after the funeral service in the Abbey. This led us past St James’s Palace where the Proclamation was read out the other day and onto Buckingham Palace.

There were plenty of people here, just wanting to be part of these historic days. All good natured in lovely bright sunshine. We paused again in front of the Palace and made our way up Constitution Hill to Hyde Park Corner where, on Monday, the Queen’s coffin will be transferred to the royal hearse for the journey to Windsor.

Our final destination was Green Park to view the floral tributes. They were immense , with countless messages of condolence and gratitude for the Queen. There were rows upon rows of flowers, each tree too, had wide garlands of flowers around them. To me it seemed like the flowers you would see laid out on top of freshly filled in graves only it was like there were endless graves. Very moving, very touching and poignant. Something which will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

The extras show Parliament Square, the queue at Lambeth Bridge, outside Westminster Hall and Buckingham Palace