World leaders gather in London ahead of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral

The United Kingdom comes to a halt on Monday morning when the funeral ceremony of Queen Elizabeth pauses at 11.55am to allow for a two-minute reign of silence.

The mark of respect represents the still point of a day which is at once a sumptuous display of royal and military funeral pageantry, an intense security and logistical operation and a vast outpouring of public affection for the late monarch.

Operation London Bridge, which began as soon as the queen’s death was announced 11 days ago, will conclude when she is laid to rest in the royal vault of St George’s Chapel after a private ceremony at Windsor Castle.

More than 70 heads of state, including US president Joe Biden and the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, arrived in London over the weekend for what represents an unprecedented concentration of world leaders. They will be seated in the south transept of Westminster Abbey some two hours ahead of the 11am service.

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President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Micheál Martin both signed the book of condolence at Lancaster House on Sunday. Mr Higgins and Mr Martin were accompanied by their respective wives, Sabina and Mary, in paying their respects at the catafalque in Westminster Hall.

The Taoiseach also visited Downing Street on Sunday morning for a low-key meeting with the new British prime minister, Liz Truss. Their first official meeting touched on the opportunity to work towards a negotiated outcome to the dispute on the Northern Ireland protocol.

The Irish delegation attended the reception hosted by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on Sunday, with royals and heads of state gathering at Chelsea hospital to be transported through a security zone to the palace for a 6pm engagement with the new monarch.

Police officials are preparing for a crowd of up to two million people to line the streets around the historical and political heart of London ahead of the funeral procession. The service is expected to last for more than an hour, marking the zenith of an extended period of mourning across Britain in which royal protocol and pageantry has been facilitated by an intense policing operation. An estimated 10,000 uniformed police will be on duty, as well as plain-clothes officers in the crowd, snipers stationed on rooftops and surveillance drones located high above the streets of Westminster.

The unbroken line of mourners standing through the night to pay their respects to the queen was expected to continue until 6.30am, when the doors of Westminster Hall were due to be closed. The queen’s casket will be taken in procession from the abbey to Wellington Arch, at Hyde Park corner. From there, she will be taken by state hearse to Windsor, where the most public royal event in generations will conclude under a veil of privacy.