Queen Elizabeth’s coffin leaves Scotland for LondonThe Queen’s coffin has left Edinburgh Airport and is being flown to London.
After landing at RAF Northholt, the coffin will be driven to Buckingham Palace.
The coffin will rest in the Bow Room, before it is moved on Wednesday to lie in state at the Palace of Westminster, where thousands are expected to pay their respects to the Queen.
Its arrival will be witnessed by King Charles III, the Queen Consort, and other members of the royal family at around 8pm.
The Princess Royal has accompanied the Queen’s coffin from Scotland and back to England’s capital city.
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Our reporter Emily Dugan is chatting to the crowds of people at Buckingham Palace awaiting the arrival of the hearse carrying the Queen’s coffin:
Small crowds are beginning to gather in the rain outside Buckingham Palace ahead of the arrival of the Queen’s coffin.
Sandra Baker, 78, a former diary secretary to the Cabinet Office under John Major, came with her two daughters to sit close to the palace on The Mall.
Dressed in black under a plastic mac bought in haste at Charing Cross station, she arrived at midday from Orpington to make sure she had a front row spot in her camp chair.
“I just had to come today to see our Queen. I’ve watched everything on television so far and my husband’s recorded it all for me when I get home.”
Evie Page, 3, was one of several children laying next flowers next to a cardboard cutout of the Queen on the edge of St James’s park.
Her mother Jodie Page, 40, said: “I just wanted to bring the kids down because it’s a bit of history. I remember coming up when Princess Diana died and laid flowers and it’s a similar thing.”
Evie seemed less convinced by the day’s historical significance. Once her bouquet was down she toddled off to chase squirrels.
Louise Cook, 55, a midwife from Brentwood in Essex, was in prime position under a Union flag umbrella next to the palace gates. It is her first time at any Royal event.
“I’ve always supported or had an affection for the Royal family but nothing they’ve done before ever lured me,” she said. “I’ve always been content to watch it on television.”
She said this moment was different. “She’s given 70 years service. The least I can do is pay my respects to her.”
Despite the increasingly heavy rain, she intended to stay until 8pm when the Queen’s coffin arrives. “I’ll stay until she’s home”, she said.
Pictured left to right: Emma Jackson, 47, Joanne Fathers, 57, Sandra Baker, 78 from Orpington wait by Buckingham Palace in central London for the Queen’s coffin to arrive at Buckingham Palace. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The GuardianPeople wait for the arrival of the hearse carrying Queen Elizabeth’s coffin at Buckingham Palace. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Photograph: Markus Schreiber/APKing Charles III and the Queen’s Consort have arrived at Buckingham Palace after returning from Northern Ireland.
The crowds erupted in cheers and applause as his motorcade of five motorbikes and three cars drove into the palace gates.
Charles could be seen waving as he sat next to Camilla in the car, PA reports.
The Queen’s coffin is currently being flown from Edinburgh and is expected to land in London at around 6.45pm.
King Charles and the Queen Consort arrive at the Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/ReutersOur colleague Libby Brooks has been in Edinburgh talking to people who queued to file past the Queen’s coffin at St Giles’ Cathedral:
Jo Williams was one of the very first to view the Queen’s coffin on Monday, arriving at the Meadows at 5.30am before the official queuing arrangements had started.
Williams, who drove from Manchester and had to hurriedly source a replacement electric wheelchair after her own broke down, said the effort was well worth it.
The moments in the cathedral passing the Queen’s coffin are ones she will remember always: “there was a lot of security of course but when you got inside it felt really calm and dignified. I felt at rest but also emotional: it was like she was there.”
“It was still a shock to see it. She’s the person who’s on our money and ran our country and it’s hard to believe she’s gone.”
A prison officer for 13 years before illness forced her to give up her job, 41-year-old Williams said she was most touched to see the Scottish crown on top of the coffin: “It was such a lovely thing that even though she’s not with us she’s still our Queen.”
“I can’t believe I was able to come here and see her in a wheelchair. I’d never have been able to if she’d been in London.”
Jo Williams, from Manchester, queued from 5.30am for the opportunity to file past the Queen’s coffin. Photograph: @LibbybrooksIn Hillsborough Castle, Alex Maskey, the speaker of the Northern Ireland assembly and a Sinn Féin member, passed on condolences to the new King, while also addressing the political context of the changes in the region during Queen Elizabeth’s lifetime.
King Charles thanked Northern Ireland for the condolences, and said that his mother never ceased to pray for the best of times for its people, “whose sorrows our family had felt”, in a reference to the death of Lord Mountbatten in 1979.