The Queen Is Dead

In the office with my colleagues last week we were discussing the news about medical professionals having “concerns about the Queen’s health” We all pretty much agreed that with the royal family all heading to Balmoral that the death of the monarch was pretty much inevitable. Not that we were hoping for it more that we were expecting it after the veiled language that was released from the palace.

It’s Not Over ‘Til Huw Edwards Sings

With the 6’o’clock news still on at half-six, Huw Edwards announced what we’d been expecting, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died. He looked a bit emotional like he was holding back the tears as he repeated the palace statement over and over. People were already headed to Balmoral Castle and Buckingham Palace to “pray for the Queen” or “wish her well” so it was obvious that the crowds would soon start to swell as thousands of people from Britain and around the world made their way to London to lay tributes etc.

Road Trip

It was around nine that evening when I booked the next morning off work and decided on a road trip for the Friday. We only work the mornings on Fridays so it was only going to cost me a half day holiday. I charged up the batteries for my Canon 5D MkIV and prepared films for my Canon A1 35mm camera. I selected some Ilford HP5+ and some Kodak Portra 400, placed them in the bag and set it aside for the next day.

With the rest of my family up and out for 8am I had no trouble waking up and getting togged up for the day of photographing people in London. I figured that there would be many oportunities to take images of people, places, events so didn’t want to leave it too late. In the car and on the way to Stanmore tube station, I pulled into the car park about 10:15am, paid for my £6 parking on the app as I walked to the platform, scanned my Apple Watch across the Oyster circle and headed to the tube with the destination for Stratford.

In the few minutes before the train set off I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5+ into my A1 and took my 5D out and hung it around my shoulder. Then I looked at the map and found that the best place to alight from the tube to get to Buckingham Palace might be Green Park. The train was almost empty at Stanmore but filled up the closer we got to my selected destination.

Park & Stride

Off the train now and heading out into the park it was clear that there was a general movement of people towards Buck House, with many hundreds of these travellers bearing a bouquet of blooms. I turned around at the fountain just out of the station and faced the tunnel. A young man I’d snapped a photo of on the train was walking towards me with a bunch of flowers and a quizzical look on his face as though I was stalking him. I wasn’t. There were countless other sad people on their way to “pay their respects” to the Queen.

Green Park saw thousands of flower carrying travellers.

No-one Would Have Believed

Following the throng of people I felt kind of like the narrator in Jeff Wayne’s War Of The World when he was carried along in the human caravan trying to escape the Martian Invaders. Some people were visibly upset, some were not and there were a number of people like me just taking in the scenes. Now I must point out that I wasn’t emotional about the Queen’s death because I didn’t know her and have never met her or been touched by anything she’d done. I felt a little detached from the mood but I am aware that even though she was the Queen, she still had a family who would be mourning her. I know people who have died recently in the Covid lockdown who have had far worse ends to their lives so I didn’t feel too weighed down by grief, as I could see other people being affected.

Human Emotion

My interest in the scene was a curiosity about why these people were behaving like they were. Had they met the Queen, been to a tea party, grown up with their parents extolling love for the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom? No doubt about it some people in the crowds were very upset and I feel for them, maybe their Gran, Mother or other relative had died recently, raking up memories of the grieving process. In my mind I was trying to figure out what “Paying Respects” meant, why did foreign visitors to the country and lifelong Brits stick a bunch of flowers in the fence of the palace, cuddly toys with notes attached. All this seems a bit over the top to me, maybe it’s because I’m heartless or something but I felt none of this. on a personal level, but I could understand why others might feel upset. I’m not a complete unfeeling monster.

Messages and flowers from people paying their respects.

Managing to get a good spot in front of the palace, and on the steps of the Victoria Memorial Fountain I could see the scene in front of me, people in a queue filing past the palace gates, laying flowers and tributes before moving on or standing to witness the scene. It was a scene like I’d never experienced before and one that I shall remember for many years to come. It started to rain and prepared visitors to the area all unleashed their brollies. I stood in my rain coat taking photos of the scene ahead of me and also behind me. The umbrellas seemed to merge together to form a phalanx as I’ve seen in sad parts of movies at the graveside of a character or two.

Media Studies

People were taking selfies with the palace in the background, vloggers (if you still call them that), youtubers and broadcast news teams were all setting up shop to begin their coverage and hundreds of people like myself with cameras were wandering around the crowds looking for a picture that will sit in the library or in a frame that captured the sombre mood of the atmosphere on the day. Maybe some were photographers for Getty, Alamy, AP or other image agencies but most looked to be individuals with the same goal as me.

The World’s Media were setting up and beginning their day.

96 Guns, 96 Tears

Once I’d finished in front of the palace and explored most of the angles I could get to, I headed up to Hyde Park to see the 96 gun salute. The guns were being fired once for each year of the Queen’s life. It was packed, again the surge of people heading up to Admiralty Arch was impressive, and I noticed the queue for laying flowers led all the way up tp the security barriers by the arch. People were still carrying flowers, many walking but some on bikes, scooters, wheelchairs etc.

Once near to the most crowded part of the park, I could just about see some guns with the King’s Troop Artillery stood near them. Upon the shooting starting I learned that there were six guns and each would be 16 times. The noise from the guns was terrific and the scene in the distance over the heads of thousands of other onlookers was interesting to see. Soldiers kneeling down by the side of the old guns, a big cloud of smoke and then the sound.

In the distance, the Kings Troop saluting the Queen.

The Loud Sound Of Silence

The sound was very clear to hear as there was virtually no other noise. The crowd were enraptured by the noise and the symbolism of what each bang meant, most kept still and silent whilst some people whispered. This was the only time that I felt a bit of a chill down my spine. The silence was more of a tribute that I could get behind than placing flowers by a fence or tweeting a loving message about the Queen to anyone who’d follow my boring feed. My camera was turned on other people at this point to capture the sea of arms being raised to video the spectacle from a distance so great that the zoom would have been troublesome to hold steady. I captured people holding their cell phones aloft as well as others standing in quiet meditation.

Spectator videoing the gun salute using his umbrella.

When the last of the 96 bangs echoed across Hyde Park and quietened a round of applause came up the crowd in a wave as the horse mounted part of the King’s Troop rode across to hitch up the guns and ammunition carriages to get back to barracks as soon as they possibly could. The uniforms and horses were spectacularly well turned out but I was questioning the cost of this exercise in my own mind. Did it need to have been 96 shots or would the police providing security to the event be better utilised in the pursuit of a burglary suspect or car thief?

Caught By The Fuzz

Police officers seemed to be a feature of my day in and around London, with many pictures taken of them. Some because their helmet badges showed EIIR with will soon change to CIIIR the R changing from Regina for Elizabeth and Rex for the new King Charles III. There were thousands of Police officers around the capital with many being armed with semi-automatic rifles and sidearms. Obviously I’m not oblivious to the fact that a large queue of people waiting to lay tributes to the leader of the British Empire might make a tasty target for a terrorist or other ill natured person, so I am aware for the need of police to reduce the risk to the population. But, how much did this all cost? Who is paying for all of this? What about those citizens who don’t feel the need to lay a floral tribute, pray or light a candle in the Queen’s memory, they’re going to be paying for this ceremonial shenanigans for years to come.

Flags At Half Mast

From Hyde Park I hired a Santander Bike, formerly known as Boris Bikes after the Mayor Of London Boris Johnson. I took it for a spin around the capital, I went to the Palace again and then on to Downing Street to see the crowds of people around there too. Flags at half mast (or half staff if you’re from the US) appeared on all of the government buildings and on my way past the palace this time I noticed that the half mast Union Jack had been replaced by a Royal Standard at the top of the flag pole, which obviously meant that the new King was in the house at Buckingham Palace.

The flags around the rest of the capital were difficult to photograph but I captured one near the Elizabeth Tower of the Palace Of Westminster (Big Ben), and for me I could tell that this would be an image that would remind me of the day for the years to come. I’ve loads of photos of Big Ben in the past but this on with the flag lowered will always take me back to the day after the queen died.

Elizabeth Tower and A Flag at Half Mast

My onward journey from here saw me travel to the Tower Of London and then St Katherine’s Dock where there was a collection of Dunkirk’s Little Ships. One tickled me as it was called “Tom Tit” a phrase I learned when I was sixteen and an apprentice electrician that was rhyming slang for a number two on a toilet. I asked one of the sailors on board whether it was named for the slang and he confirmed it. It was interesting to see these little pleasure craft that had played an important role in the evacuation of thousands of allied troops from occupied France eighty years ago. There were few opportunities here so I walked back to the Tower, this time avoiding getting shouted at for being on a bike. There was a big flower display on at the Tower that had been postponed for the obvious reason and I sat and had a wait to see if there were any interesting situations to photograph, chatting to a Londoner from Romford about the Royal Family changes.

Tube Time

Once finished here I entered Tower Hill tube station after talking to a donut van salesman about why he thought everyone carrying on their normal business today was Evil and working for Satan, as the Queen was obviously a good person and warranted everyone spending the day in prayer for her soul. Yep, carry on sir. I didn’t engage too much with this chap as he was highly serious about his viewpoint and to argue with him might not have ended well. I quietly entered the station and boarded what I thought was a Circle Line train to Liverpool Street Station where I could get on a Metropolitan Line train back to Wembley Park and then Jubilee to Stanmore.

On My Journey Back to the Car.

People on the tube now seemed to not care about the death of the monarch, where earlier there were hundreds of people carrying flowers, everyone now was staring into their phones to avoid eye contact with randomers.

At Stanmore I jumped back into my car for the 2 hour drive back to Shropshire and a nice relax for my tired feet..

Summary

Why did I go?

To take pictures documenting the extraordinary event. I consider myself pretty removed from the proceedings but wanted to capture a flavour of what was going on in London on that day. I wasn’t moved by the people there or even emotional about the whole situation The photos I came back with show very little of the palace, tower or any other touristy view of London and more of the faces of everyday Londoners , tourists and foreign visitors as players in the big performance spectacle.

What to do with the images?

Honestly, they’re not images I’d hang on my wall because they’re nice to look at, but they mean a lot to me as they relate the events of the day to me. I’ve edited a few and posted to Instagram and Flickr and maybe in years to come when I’ve been burnt in a box they’ll be looked at as interesting moments on the day. Hundreds of thousands of people were taking photos and videos of the days proceedings so there’ll likely be enough to compile a “Queen’s Death” top twenty moments on Channel Five in 30 years time.

What about the funeral?

Nope, I shan’t head down for that, or even for filing past the coffin as she lies in state in Westminster. It might be interesting to go and take photos of people in the queue but it could well be a bunch of people waiting for a bus or an ice cream van. I’m not interested in going to see the coffin either, that seems a bit weird to me. Bear in mind I think it’s weird and one of my business ideas for the future is Funeral Photography, which I think is a good niche to go into but get some funny looks when I explain it. I guess that I’m just not emotionally involved enough in monarchy goings on or even politics to get het up by events like this.

My Film Pictures?

Now I’ve developed the black and white roll I can begin scanning them to see if there are any reasonable shots in there, the colour film still has a few left on it to use up. Once done, I’ll send it off to AG Photographic and then I can print some out at university as I start again next week and hopefully the Colenta machine will be up and running..

Once they are done though I’ll be sure to post them on my blog as part of this journal.

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