✒ Last paragraph of this article:
“Those who see the queue as a uniting national ritual find their theory confirmed in that long line of mostly calm, stoical, good-humoured people leading to Westminster Hall. This queue is not what retail experts call a “pain point”, to be suffered on the way to being served; it is a cultural phenomenon, an end in itself, a site of pilgrimage where the journey matters as much as the arrival. The mundane queues we experience every day rarely give us the same sense of purpose and belonging. They will remain tedious and unglamorous to stand in — which is why the line of Britons waiting to pay respects to their late Queen should be remembered as something different, and unique.”
Why were the people willing to wait to experience what could be seen free on an internet stream? By the Thames, the question quickly flipped to: why not?
“If I can’t give 12 hours of my life for someone who’s given us 70 years, it’s a bit sad, isn’t it?” said Amanda, a careworker from Folkestone.