Brentford and Isleworth Set to See the Queen on Her Final Journey |
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Funeral cortege to pass through area on way to Windsor burial
Brentford & Isleworth residents will have the chance bid farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on her final journey. Her funeral cortege is set to drive through the area on the afternoon of Monday 19 September on its way to her burial at Windsor Castle. Hounslow Council has now confirmed that the state hearse containing the Queen's coffin will remain on the A4 through Brentford, Isleworth and Osterley all the way to Henly's Corner where it will join the A30. Thousands of people lined the side of the A40 last Tuesday evening as the state hearse was bringing the coffin from RAF Northolt to Buckingham Palace. As Monday is a public holiday with, the weather expected currently to be dry and mild, the numbers wishing to pay their respects to the Queen by the roadside is expected to be significantly higher. It is understood that this route was chosen because it maximises the opportunity for people in the area to get a good view of the cortege. The authorities are hoping that giving an increased chance of seeing the Queen on her journey will reduce the number of people queueing to see her lying-in-state.
The expectation is that the cortege will arrive in the area at some time after 1pm although it is almost definitely advisable to arrive at your chosen spot much earlier than that. Thousands of people lined the side of the A40 last Tuesday evening as the state hearse was bringing the coffin from RAF Northolt to Buckingham Palace. As Monday is a public holiday with, the weather expected currently to be dry and mild, the numbers wishing to pay their respects to the Queen by the roadside is expected to be significantly higher. The latest official information on the arrangements for the day will be shared on the @MetPoliceEvents Twitter account. Road closures on and around the route are expected to come into force at 11am and remain in place for around two and half hours after the procession has passed. Crossings, junctions and pedestrian over and underpasses will be closed to the public throughout the procession, until it is safe for them to be reopened. Transport for London suspended roadworks in Chiswick on the A4 this week to enable the cortege to proceed more smoothly but these will resume on Sunday 25 September. At 6.30am on the day of the funeral, the Queen’s lying-in-state will end. King Charles III will once again lead his family in marching behind the coffin when it is moved from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey at 10.44am. He will walk with the Princess Royal, Duke of York and Earl of Wessex and behind the quartet will be the Queen’s grandsons Peter Phillips, Duke of Sussex and the Prince of Wales The Queen’s coffin will be carried during the procession on a 123-year-old gun carriage towed by 98 Royal Navy sailors in a tradition dating back to the funeral of Queen Victoria.
At 8am the doors of Westminster Abbey will open for the congregation to begin taking their seats. The funeral is set to take place at 11am with foreign royals, diplomats and heads of state having arrived from the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The procession will arrive at the west gate of Westminster Abbey at 10.52am when the bearer party will lift the coffin from the gun carriage and carry it into the Abbey for the state funeral service,. The service will be conducted by the Dean of Westminster with services read by the Prime Minister and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, while the Archbishop of York, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Free Churches Moderator will say prayers. The Archbishop of Canterbury will give the sermon. At around 11.55am the Last Post will sound at which point a national two minutes of silence is to be observed. Reveille, the national anthem and a lament played by the Queen’s piper will bring funeral service to an end at around noon. The coffin will then be lifted again and walked in procession to Wellington Arch at Hyde Park with the route up Constitution Hill lined by the Armed Forces. At Wellington Arch the coffin will be moved into the state hearse which will be driven out of London on the A4 and the M4 with the expectation that it will arrive at Shaw Farm Gate on Albert Road, Windsor at 3.06pm. It will then join another procession to be taken to St George’s Chapel. The Queen will be interred with the Duke of Edinburgh in King George VI’s Memorial Chapel in a private service at 7.30pm on Monday.
September 16, 2022 |
A4 Roadworks to Be Suspended Due to Queen's Funeral |
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Move made to avoid delays to cortege as it travels to Windsor Castle
Transport for London has taken the decision to suspend roadworks on the A4 in Chiswick for a week in preparation for the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Work to repair the Cromwell Road railway bridge is to be paused from Friday 16 September to Saturday 24 September and all lane restrictions are to be temporarily removed. Work is expected to resume on Sunday 25 September There will be a full closure of the A4 westbound overnight between Chiswick Roundabout and Hogarth Roundabout from 10pm on Thursday 15 September until 3:00am the next day to allow the road to be cleared. The pavement on the westbound side of the road – between Harvard Hill and Oxford Road South – will reopen as planned on Friday 16 September. Signed diversion routes via the subway at Harvard Hill and the underpass on Wellesley Road will remain in place until then. On the day of funeral on Monday 19 September the cortege would need to travel through Chiswick, past the point of the roadworks, on its way to Windsor Castle after leaving Westminster Abbey. There are currently substantial delays at this point due to the road being reduced to a single carriageway near the junction with Sutton Court Road. There have been concerns expressed about visiting royalty from other nations and heads of state, being stuck in traffic on their way from Heathrow prior to the funeral. Warnings about the opportunity high-value targets being static in congestion presents to terrorists have been made. The roadworks were due to enter a particularly disruptive phase with a lane reduction on the eastbound carriageway starting on 17 September while the restrictions on the westbound carriageway continued. TfL is currently working on an updated programme to remove and reinstate the works but it is possible that the closures may now need to continue into next year. Cllr Peter Thompson, leader of the Conservative group on Hounslow Council said, "This sensible move from TfL is expected and very welcome. The eyes of the world will be on London in the days ahead and more people than usual will be travelling to London to pay their respects to our late Queen. We need all our major roads to be open to make their journeys as smooth as possible."
September 16, 2022 |