Mourners wiped away tears as they laid flowers for the Queen outside Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle on Monday, while aerial pictures reveal the sheer scale of flowers being left at the gates of the late monarch’s Norfolk estate.
The sea of tributes including flowers, cards, soft toys, drawings, Union Jack flags and balloons kept pouring in as the steady stream of people travelling to Royal residences to express their condolences continued on the fourth day of mourning.
Drone images show thousands of bouquets laid outside the Royal Sandringham Estate after crowds of well-wishers flocked there over the weekend to remember the Queen who ‘dedicated her whole life’ to the country.
The huge amount of flowers wrapped in plastic packaging, Paddington Bear soft toys and even marmalade sandwiches being laid outside Buckingham Palace has prompted the Royal Parks to urge people only to ‘lay organic or compostable material’.
Meanwhile, mourners broke down into tears outside Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle amid a national outpouring of grief for Queen Elizabeth II, who died ‘peacefully’ at Balmoral on September 8, aged 96.
Today, King Charles III, who was proclaimed in a historic service at St James’s Palace on Saturday, paid tribute to his late mother and said he felt the ‘weight of history which surrounds us’ as he addressed parliament for the first time as monarch.
The King made the address after MPs and peers expressed their sympathies to His Majesty during a ceremony at Westminster Hall in central London.
King Charles travelled to Edinburgh following his address to parliament, and will later lead the Royal Family in procession as his mother’s coffin is moved to St Giles’ Cathedral for a service of thanksgiving in the afternoon.
Following this, the King and other members of the Royal family will mount their own vigil in honour of the Queen at 7.20pm.
Mourners will be able to view the Queen’s coffin at the cathedral and pay their respects for a period of 24 hours.
Preparations are underway for Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral, which will be held at Westminster Abbey on September 19 and has been declared as a Bank Holiday in the UK.
A huge sea of flowers pictured at the Royal Sandringham Estate on Monday morning.
Over the weekend people queued to leave tributes to the Queen at the royal residence in Norfolk
A mourner covers her face while paying respects to Queen Elizabeth II at the Green Park memorial next to Buckingham Palace on Monday, September 12
A mourner covers her face while paying respects to Queen Elizabeth II at the Green Park memorial next to Buckingham Palace on Monday, September 12
A huge sea of flowers pictured at the Royal Sandringham Estate on Monday morning.
Over the weekend people queued to leave tributes to the Queen at the royal residence in Norfolk
A little girl hugs her mother at the Royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on Monday morning.
Thousands of flowers have been laid at the Norwich Gates since the Queen’s death was announced at 6.30pm on Thursday
Masses of bouquets had been laid outside the Norwich Gates to Sandringham House by Monday morning, in scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip’s death, last April.
One mourner, Carolyn Walker, who had travelled to view the tributes at the estate on Monday, said: ‘She deserves it, what she’s done for our country and for our people.
‘We’re going to be lost without her.
No-one will ever be able to replace her.’
The 56-year-old, who lives near Downham Market in Norfolk, added: ‘She always had a smile on her face.
‘She dedicated her whole life. I just had to come.’
Her daughter Natalie Metcalfe, 32, added: ‘How long she’s done it for, how hard she’s done it for and just what she made the country be.
‘Just as one.
It shows, with the flowers.’
People flocking to Sandringham to pay their respects include pensioners making their way to the gates with the help of walkers, and children in their school uniform.
The estate has now entered an official period of mourning and all facilities will remain closed until further notice.
Two women read a message as they lay floral tributes to the late monarch at Green Park in central London on September 12
A mourner wipes away a tear as she pays tribute to the late monarch at Green Park in central London on September 12
A little girl is seen leaving pink roses in memory of the Queen in Green Park, central London on Monday September 12
Three sisters wearing matching t-shirts commemorating the Queen stand next to flowers and messages placed for coins – visit the next page – the Queen in Green Park, London, on Monday morning
A mourner wipes away a tear as she pays tribute to the late monarch at Windsor Castle on September 12
Flowers today left at St James’s Park in central London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, September 8
Meanwhile, two schoolgirls were seen laying flowers in Green Park before class starts on Monday morning in a touching tribute to the Queen, with young children arriving with their parents to remember her.
And dozens of mourners arrived at Windsor Castle from as early as 6am to pay their respects and leave bouquets and heartfelt cards to the late monarch, while have been laid out on the lawns next to the Cambridge Gate.
Catherine Burden, from the Isle of Wight, was among those who laid flowers at Windsor Castle with her daughter, Claire Nunn, on Monday.
Ms Burden expressed fear at ‘the emptiness left behind’ by the Queen and described her as ‘the fabric of our country’.
‘There’s the emptiness left behind.
I think it’s something that was the fabric of our country, of our society, and what she stood for was really what we would like all of us to stand for,’ Ms Burden said.
Clare Chandler, 40, mining from Windsor, recalled her daughter’s admiration of the Queen after seeing she could ‘still ride a horse’ at an event to mark her 90th birthday.
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