Antonia Gigglberger - Documentary Photographer

god save the queen

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God Save The Queen 2022

Queen Elizabeth II., Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, died on 8 September 2022 at the age of 96. Elizabeth's reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch.
Elizabeth's death set in motion the most recent version of Operation London Bridge, a funeral plan first devised in the 1960s, which included her coffin being placed on a raised platform in Westminster Hall for three days for the public to visit. Between 14 and 19 September 2022, a queue of mourners waited to file past the coffin. Approximately 250,000 people queued to pay their respects in London.
The main queue had a length of up to 10 miles (16 km) and a maximum waiting time of more than 24 hours. There was also a shorter accessible queue, for people with disabilities or long-term health conditions. The United Kingdom observed a national mourning period of 10 days.

Designated as a public holiday in the UK and several Commonwealth states, the state funeral included dignitaries from around the world and featured the largest security operation ever mounted in the UK. Coverage of the state funeral was one of the UK’s most watched special television broadcasts. The period of official mourning and the funeral was estimated to have cost the government £162 million.
Whilst the character of the queue was mostly described as "subdued positivity" and a bonding experience of being in the queue together, some people didn’t think of queuing as they are opposed to the idea of the monarchy still being in place in Great Britain, whereas others felt rather indifferent about what has happened.

I've been talking with people in and around the Lying-in-State-Queue of Queen Elizabeth II. in September 2022.

Csaba

Basically, we printed the same quantity, but more people take it today. It’s historical. I had plenty of jobs before. I’ve been doing this job for about 6 years. It’s an easy job. I have another ambition, so I have time for it. If I work 10 hours in a factory, hard work, I don’t have energy for doing my music. Film music composing. But amateur. My aim is to spread my music, selling my music, basically. Here I have the chance to contact with people.

Annie

I’m from America originally, I’ve lived here for just under 7 years now. And it’s just a heartbreaking realization that it’s the first day without her, everyone around the world can relate to it. Especially as an American, you know so many people in the US have English backgrounds and can relate to it, and you know they have middle names that are Elizabeth just because of her. You really realize how big of an impact she had now that she’s gone, I mean there’s really no words, we can only say so much. It was very quick. In hindsight, that might have been, I don’t want to say a good thing, but she didn’t suffer. She only met the new prime minister two days ago, and she had smiles on her face, which I think is a very big testimony to who she is. You always think, especially at her age, so many people suffer for such a long time, she didn’t, so I think that’s a silver lining.

Michael

She inherited millions of pounds
From the gains of slavery
Yet she allowed each colony
To wallow in poverty
Seventy five
Long hard years
This Monarch Liz did Reign
She made sure her colonies
Made no economic gain
A few hours ago
We got the news
No lies
Fakes news or tricks
That Lizzy

Queen of England died
At the age of ninety six
I can't offer no sympathy
I've never been a hypocrite
Her son Charlie
Is sure to be
Sitting where she did sit
At last !
He will become the Monarch
The British Ruler
The King !
If he brings us Reparations
Then I will support him !

Excerpt from a poem by
Dr. The Most Honorable
Anthony Gabby Carter
( Chief Omowale )

Christie

We set off at 5 o'clock this morning from Bolton.
The monarchy has got to change, because it’s a man now, not a woman. No idea how it’s going to change. I think we need a monarchy because it brings us a lot of tourists, moneywise and stuff like that. Because it’s not good at the minute, is it. With the Brexit and everything like that.

Lois

Well, obviously, I think people knew it was coming, because she was fairly old, but it’ s now a big thing because I feel like this country loves the royals so much.
My family are royalists, so, it’s quite upsetting, even though we didn’t know her, we feel like that. My whole life, she’s always been there. My granddad has obviously seen her, from the coronation, when she was crowned, he’s seen that, so he’s quite sad. The monarchy won’t change necessarily, because Charles has seen 73 years of his mother ruling.

Shirley and her friend

Quite shocked, very sad, it brings back a lot of emotion, if people maybe have recently been beriefed as well, it brings back a lot of sadness, it seems to be with lots of people.

Heartbreaking. Devastating. Normally, I’m Republican, but I’ve said to my buddy here, that I’ve come because of what she’s achieved in her 70 years, unselfish, absolutely devoted to all of that, this made me realize I want to come for that reason. But we’ve found some lovely people, they formed a team, they keep finding places for us to sit down. So they get us again. I can’t stand for a long time. We won’t give up, not now, because we heard that we probably won’t get in till this evening.

Phoebe and her Grandmother Mary

Very sad. We hope Charles will do a good job, don’t we? We haven’t been to the Palace, just Westminster Abbey. We saw the coffin. I didn’t really feel the need to pay respect, but I felt the need to bring Granny. She’s a royalist. She’s not stopped watching the news since the Queen died. I think the monarchy has been there too long to abolish it, it should be there, don’t take it away.