Preparations for Queen’s funeral ramp up at Hyde Park where 150,000 are expected to watch ceremony on eight big screens as officials plan to accommodate mourners who can’t line streets
- Thousands expected to flock to park to watch a broadcast of Monday’s funeral
- Crowds watched procession from Buckingham Palace on screens on Wednesday
- Hyde Park Corner and two other Tube stations closing to prevent overcrowding
- Scotland Yard is carrying out the biggest security operation in 200-year history
- The Queen’s funeral: All the latest Royal Family news and coverage
Preparations are ramping up at Hyde Park today, where as many as 150,000 people are expected to watch a broadcast of the Queen’s funeral on big screens on Monday.
Officials told MailOnline today there will be eight jumbotrons – six in the main parade ground and two on Serpentine Road – along with dozens of toilets and food and drink outlets.
Cranes are still visible on site as work to prepare the park for an historic final farewell to the late monarch begins to accelerate.
Bosses are trying to cater for as many viewers as possible, amid plans to redirect mourners who can’t find space on the streets to the park, according to the Evening Standard.
The area is expected to be so busy, that Transport for London will shut Hyde Park Corner tube station – along with Westminster and St James’s Park – for ‘most of the morning’ to prevent overcrowding, while buses will also be diverted due to road closures.
Thousands descended on the park on Wednesday to watch the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, but sources expect there to be substantially more arriving to watch the funeral itself on Monday.
It comes as police put a ring of steel around Westminster Abbey, in what is being described as the biggest security operation in Scotland Yard’s near-200 year history.
Preparations are ramping up at Hyde Park today, where as many as 150,000 people are expected to watch a broadcast of the Queen’s funeral on big screens on Monday
A number of portaloos have been put in place in anticipation of thousands of visitors to the park to watch the funeral
Preparations being made in Hyde Park earlier this week, with 150,000 people expected to watch the broadcast of the Queen’s funeral on big screens
Pictured: Hyde Park on Wednesday as thousands of mourners watched screens broadcasting the procession
Work has gone on through the night to make sure the site is as prepared as possible for Monday’s historic event
At least 10,000 police officers including 2,000 from around the UK will be guarding central London and the Queen’s 23 mile route to Windsor Castle on Monday.
Many roads and bridges will be shut to traffic and 23-miles of barriers put up to control crowds and keep key areas empty or secure.
The Met’s DAC Stuart Cundy, the man in charge of the operation in the capital, said the force would use ‘all tools and tactics available’ to protect the Queen’s coffin, the Royal Family, hundreds of VIPs and world leaders and the 1million people expected to head to the capital to mourn.
The senior officer told reporters the ‘hugely complex’ policing operation is the biggest in the force’s history, surpassing the London 2012 Olympics which saw up to 10,000 police officers on duty per day.
Rank-and-file will line the streets supported by armed officers on the ground and snipers on rooftops. Helicopters and CCTV will help commanders watch crowds from the sky.
At Hyde Park earlier this week, a site supervisor told MailOnline that two stages have been put up, but ‘no one knows what for’.
Those working on site expect campers to arrive early the day before to bag the best spots, despite the Royal Parks pleading with visitors not to do so.
‘Anyone who attempts to camp during the National Mourning period could be asked to move on and may not be admitted,’ a notice on its website reads.
Amid reports as many as 150,000 people could flock to the park, the supervisor pointed to the greenery and told MailOnline: ‘Put it this way, you know all that green grass? You’re not going to see a blade of it on Monday’.
He added that the number of people will easily surpass the 62,000 that showed on the day of Harry and Meghan’s wedding.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mr Cundy said: ‘This will be the largest single policing event that the Met Police has ever undertaken. As a single event this is larger than the 2012 Olympics, it is larger than the Platinum Jubilee weekend. The range of officers, police staff and all those supporting the operation is truly immense.’
He added that 34 people have been arrested as part of the policing operation in the lead up to the Queen’s funeral. The senior officer called the number recorded by Friday morning ‘relatively few’, and said none were for protesting.
Preparations being made in Hyde Park earlier this week, with 150,000 people expected to watch the broadcast of the Queen’s funeral on big screens
Friends enjoy a sit down in Hyde Park while dozens of portaloos are put in place ahead of the screening of Monday’s funeral
The royal park has already set up four big screens and food trucks as they expect campers to arrive early on Sunday to bag the best spots
Drones are known to be used in major operations while facial recognition software has been used in London. DAC Cundy declined to rule out using them, citing operational reasons, but added they would use ‘all tactics and tools’ they needed to protect the capital.
He said that he wanted the crowds to keep an eye out for drones because there is a no-fly zone over the funeral and London procession.
Motorbike escort riders, the Met’s horse-mounted branch, dog teams and the marine unit will be in place. The force will also use more than 22 miles of barriers in central London alone to control crowds and keep key areas secure.
It came as Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the policing operation for the funeral as ‘enormous’, adding that his officers are being supported by ‘pretty much every force across the country’ who are all ‘relishing the opportunity’.
Meanwhile, transport bosses said they ‘will aim to reopen stations’ after the funeral at Westminster Abbey – which will be at around noon – to help people leaving the area. Green Park station will be exit-only between 10am and 8pm.
TfL also announced that buses will pull over ‘if it is safe and practical to do so’ and switch their engines off during the one-minute silence on Sunday at 8pm and the two-minute silence on Monday at around 11.55am.
The Queen’s state funeral will ‘unite people across the globe and resonate with people of all faiths’, according to The Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, the man in charge of the historic occasion has said.
On Monday, the funeral will begin at 9am with the chiming of Big Ben.
Arriving at 11am, the late Queen’s coffin will be taken on a gun carriage from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey, where hundreds of world leaders and members of foreign royal families will be present.
At 11.55am the nation will then observe a two minute silence following The Last Post.
After the service at Westminster Abbey, the coffin will travel in procession to Wellington Arch, behind Buckingham Palace, where it will be placed in a hearse to make the journey to Windsor by road.
Along this procession route, people will be able to gather and pay their respects.
Pictured: Thousands of mourners shield their eyes from the sun as they watch screens broadcasting the procession of the Queen’s coffin on Wednesday
People will have the opportunity to watch the funeral along the procession route or at various screening sites across the country. Pictured: Hyde Park on Wednesday
As well as Hyde Park, there will be a number of other screenings across the country.
Manchester City Council has announced that the service will be projected onto screens in Cathedral Gardens, Exchange Square and inside the Manchester Cathedral.
In Birmingham, the funeral will be broadcast in Centenary Square, while The Royal Shakespeare Company also intends on screening the funeral at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park will also broadcast the service, in front of the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen rested in her coffin only a few days ago.
Furthermore, the service will be streamed from various main squares across the country, including Old Eldon Square in Newcastle, Millennium Square in Leeds and Queen Victoria Square in Hull.
Sheffield Cathedral and Sheffield’s Curzon Cinema also said they will broadcast the funeral as well as Bradford Cathedral from 10am.
Vue cinemas have also announced a UK-wide free screening of the Queen’s funeral.
The Mayor of London’s Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have been approached for more details on the Hyde Park screenings.
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