What happens for people queueing for hours to see Queen when they need the toilet

If you’re not amongst the thousands upon thousands of people who have decided to queue up around London in order to see the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, you probably have some questions about how it all works.

For those that have queued up, they’ve faced waits of up to 24 hours; seen celebrities in their midst - David Beckham, no less; and faced down a solemn trudge towards the Westminster Hall where the coffin of the late monarch currently sits.

However, these are just people and they have needs, so you might be wondering what the rules are for people who need to eat or go to the toilet or whatever?

Well, we can look towards none other than Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid for a bit of explanation on this front.

It’s actually quite a simple solution, when you get down to it.

Goddard on the Go/Alamy Stock Photo

Susanna took time out of her day to queue for seven hours in order to file past the coffin of the Queen, and shared her experience on Twitter, explaining a bit of the process along the way.

She said: "The first part of the queue is for wristbands.

“Ours were given out at Tower Bridge about an hour after we began queuing.

“There is no queue jumping - people waited patiently for wristbands and once you have one you can leave the queue for snacks/loo stops & slip back in."

There you have it, you can simply jump out for a wee once you’re in place.

Still, there’s not that many toilets along the way, and the queue stretches all the way back to Southwark Park.

A tweet from the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport said that the estimated time in the queue was ‘at least 11.5 hours’ with some even suggesting that there could be a 24 hour wait for many people.

The estimates suggest that around 350,000 people might turn up to view the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall ahead of her funeral on Monday.

That means that some people will miss their chance.

Sipa US/Alamy Stock Photo

On top of that, there’s around 1,000 volunteers, stewards, marshals, and coppers on the beat surrounding the queue, alongside hundreds of professional crowd controllers and others.

It’s a big operation, to say the least.

Once all of that is done, there’s the small matter of a huge state funeral replete with many world leaders and dignitaries at Westminster Abbey on Monday as well.

Police officers have already been dragged in from all corners of the United Kingdom, and it's been described as the biggest operation that the Metropolitan Police has ever undertaken.