Thousands of mourners have endured waits of up to nine hours to view the Queen’s coffin during the first full day of the lying-in-state.

At night fell, the queue was still forecast to take at least eight and a half hours, with the line stretching nearly five miles.

Long lines of people waited patiently along the south bank of the Thames before crossing Lambeth Bridge to pay their respects to the former monarch.

By lunchtime on Thursday, the queue was more than four miles long and stretched past Tower Bridge, with wait times forecast to be between eight and nine hours.

The line stretched into Bermondsey throughout the afternoon.

The queue to view the Queen lying in state could stretch for up to 10 miles with around 350,000 people able to view the Queen’s coffin, although it has been estimated up to 750,000 could attempt to join the line and that wait times could reach up to 35 hours.

The distance between the finish point and the end of the queue in Southwark Park is about five miles, but several miles of “zig-zag” systems have been set up in Southwark Park, and in Victoria Tower Gardens next to Parliament – meaning the queue could end up being double that length.

According to some estimates, as many as a million people could make their way onto the streets of London to witness the Queen’s funeral next week, with 10,000 police officers deployed daily in the run-up in what is the largest security operation the country has ever seen.

On Thursday, spirits were high among the thousands preparing to pay their respects at the lying-in-state. in Westminster Hall.

With ice cream for breakfast, blankets warming shoulders and tin-foil wrapped sandwiches packed for the wait, those in the line said they were simply doing what Britons do best, queue.

Funeral server Kerry Tomblin, from Leicester, came wrapped in a thick blanket to warm herself against the cool air, with a sparkly flask in hand.

“We all have grief, this is a moment for us all to consider our own grief and our own passes and our own changes, regardless of our political leanings – so this is a big deal I think,” Ms Tomblin toldi.

She said she would bow once she reached the coffin and say a quiet “thank you” in her mind.

“The one thing I will always do to the deceased is I always bow, regardless of who they are, because there is no other way you can show your respect, they won’t talk back if you speak to them, so I will say thank you,” she said.

Ms Tomblin’s friend, Margaret Mitchell, added: “Yes, ‘thank you for your service, you’ve been fantastic’. A one-off, really,”

Ms Mitchell, originally from Glasgow, said she was heartened by how the country was coming together following the division of post-Brexit years.

Elsewhere in the queue, Mary Vass said she would curtsey when she reached the Queen’s coffin, as she had done 36 years ago in a meeting with the monarch on the tarmac in Muscat, Oman.

Ms Vass had been an air stewardess accompanying the Queen’s state visit to China in 1986. She remembers the 16-day journey and ceremony of the flight, the cooks, the royal household and the dresses.

“When I was introduced to her, she looks at you, like she is almost trying to work you out, she doesn’t look as if it’s casual. She looks at you with blue eyes, and she’s tiny, tiny.”

Ms Vass, who had come to the queues from just outside the London area, was born in the year Princess Elizabeth became Queen. “It won’t quite be the same without her”.

Some mourners had dressed up for the occasion in suits and hats, some were in kilts, others came equipped with sturdy walking shoes.

Many were making friends with their neighbours, and said they had shared life stories by dawn.

But some of those queuing expressed their frustration that MPs, peers and up to four guests are being given special access at arranged times.

Julie James, who was among those queuing on Thursday morning, thought it was unfair that MPs were being given special access.

She said she thought ministers should be able to jump the queues, but that regular MPs, should wait in line along with everybody else.

Mrs James and husband Peter had woken at 3am to travel from Sheffield. She said: “If you are front benches, if you’re a minister of state, I think fair dos, go sort out the fuel crisis.”

But she said allowing the four extra passes for MPs’ guests was “cheeky”. Mrs James questioned whether the extra passes were for constituents or family and friends of the MPs. “I think its bit of an abuse of privilege,” she said.

Another woman in the queue, Jane Kinder, said the four passes for MPs was “a bit unreasonable”, and her friend Lesley Shaw agreed.

Ms Shaw, who had arrived in the queue in the early hours of Thursday morning with Ms Kinder after travelling from Buckinghamshire, also said it was unfair that cleaners or caterers had not been given special access if MPs had.

Overnight, one of the royal guards watching over the Queen’s coffin collapsed suddenly.

He was standing at the foot of Her Majesty’s oak casket when he fell to the floor, according to footage on social media.

i‘s Nick Duffy was among those in the overnight queues. He writes:

The overnight crowds were great. A lot of people had turned up at 11.30pm thinking that there would be an overnight lull.

There were all sorts of people there – a veteran from Doncaster, a family on a spontaneous trip from Somerset, an OBE-winning charity executive who witnessed the coronation 70 years ago, some finance workers, who had stumbled out of a pub and into the queue, and some women who were meant to be going into work this morning (Thursday) and plotting how to make it work.

It was a real community atmosphere – everyone sharing drinks and snacks and rallying people who were wavering.

Everything fell away the moment we entered Westminster Hall, just a total silence and a hard, sharp, emotional shock. I wouldn’t describe myself as a monarchist but it’s hard to deny the significance of the moment. 

Penny Purnell, from Littlehampton, West Sussex, said seeing the Queen lying in state drove home that she “really has gone”. He added: “That was quite hard to take.”

Ms Purnell and her friend Jill Scudamore joined the queue at about 11am on Wednesday and waited six hours to pay their respects.

Amma, in her 50s, from south London, said she broke down in tears as she paid her respects to the Queen.

“If I had had to wait until tomorrow morning or Friday, so be it,” she said, adding that she came prepared with a change of clothes, food and an umbrella.

She said: “I’m still shocked that our Queen has sadly passed on. As I went closer to where Her Majesty was lying there, I did curtsey, I said thank you in my mind. I broke down in tears as I walked away from her.”

Rose Smith, 60, from East Sussex, had brought a coat and a waterproof jacket.

Mrs Smith said: “She bought the whole country together, especially her last Jubilee it was just so nice to have that atmosphere, it felt like the country needed it. Everyone just pulled together at a time that was needed after Covid.”

When asked how long she was prepared to queue for, she said: “As long as it takes, 30 hours, 40 hours, it will take as long as it takes.”

Mrs Smith is preparing to camp on the Mall to secure a good spot to see the funeral on Monday, adding: “It’s going to be very emotional, but [we] just need to be there and I will be up here for the coronation as well.”

Dr Henry Mumbi, 55, from Cricklewood, north-west London, was wearing a Union Jack blazer and trousers as he queued.

Dr Mumbi, who came to England in 1994 and lectures at De Montfort University, Leicester, said: “I’m here to appreciate the hospitality and how kind the Queen was, because I’m from a Commonwealth country called Zambia, and I had an issue to do with my status in my own country, but when I came here, the doors were open and my case was sorted out.

“So I’m here to say thank you very much. I’ve been around here for 28 years now, which is more than half of my life.

“It’s my second home. I want to make sure that I participate in such moments to show respect and to acknowledge the fact that I am able to be a part of the community and British society as well.”

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