The European Union flag is taken down in Cardiff Bay as Brexit formally takes effect.

Image source, Getty Images

After 47 years of membership and three and a half years since the country voted to leave, the UK has left the EU.

Thanks for following our live coverage of this historic day.

But with negotiations on the UK's future relationship with Europe still to come, this won't be the last you hear of Brexit....

Katya Adler
Europe Editor

As Brexit dawned, I found myself reporting for the BBC from outside the glass and concrete behemoth, otherwise known as the European Commission building, in Brussels.

It's the same place I've regularly stood over the past three and a half years, attempting to explain the EU perspective on Brexit following our referendum and throughout the divorce negotiations.

It struck me that the impersonal, impenetrable-looking monolith embodies the image so many back in the UK have of the EU as a whole.

But going through my mind on Friday night were all the "ordinary" Europeans I've met across the continent while covering the Brexit story: engineers, teachers, bakers and bus drivers who asked "Why are you doing this?" and insisted: "Don't leave!"

Read more from Katya

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Image source, PA Media

What now? It's happened.

A dreary night didn't discourage those celebrating in Parliament Square. We wake this morning out of the European Union. But we follow their rules until the end of the year, without a say.

We are separate after more than 40 years, but remember much of the status quo will hold for now - the UK and the EU, the awkward couple, finally divorced - but still sharing a house and the bills.

But what the prime minister hails as a new era, a bright new dawn, starts months of hard bargaining with our neighbours across the Channel.

Read more from Laura here.

"Make leave not war", the Sun proclaims on its front page, which carries the prime minister's plea to bring the UK together.

The Daily Express strikes a jubilant tone, with the headline: "Rise and shine: It's a glorious new Britain".

"The day we said goodbye," the Guardian says more sombrely.

And now the UK is finally out - "what next?", asks the i's headline.

Read more of the front pages here.

With her first post-Brexit tweet, Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O'Neill says there's a "momentum of change" towards a united Ireland.

Pre-recorded bongs from Big Ben played out as the UK left the European Union.

Richard Moss
Political Editor, BBC Look North

A few hundred people walked down Newcastle's Northumberland Street to Monument as part of a vigil tonight.

The symbolic nature of today - the fact Boris Johnson brought the cabinet to Sunderland - has emphasised the centrality of north-east England in this whole debate.

And that won't go away because although we are leaving the European Union there is still to be settled our future trading relationship with our biggest trading partner in the region, the European Union.

There will be pressure from businesses like Nissan to have as close a relationship as almost we have now to make it as easy as possible for them to sell their cars, pressure perhaps from Conservative MPS in the region that if we are leaving a club we don't like being members of we shouldn't necessarily stick with the rules afterwards.

Boris Johnson's biggest challenge is to prove these people at the vigil wrong, that Brexit will not be an historic blunder that will leave us lagging behind, that it can be coupled with an opportunity to make life better and make us wealthier in places like the north-east of England and Cumbria.

The SNP's Ian Blackford says there is "sadness and anger" across Scotland at the UK's exit and the Scottish public will not "stand for it".

He says the Scottish people will demand a say in their future and suggests an independence referendum will provide a path "back into Europe".

He argues that the UK that Scotland voted to remain a part of in 2014 "no longer exists".

Chris Doidge
BBC Radio Derby, political reporter

Remainers at a vigil held outside Derby's council house have renamed themselves "rejoiners" now we have left the European Union.

The event was held just round the corner from a Brexit bash in a local bar.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

First of all it’s a long, long period of hard bargaining between the UK and the EU.

The UK government is determined to try to get a free-trade deal done by the end of this year but that will not be straight forward – not least because there are so many things that have to be sorted out.

But also because the EU will drive a hard bargain. Yes, both sides say they still want to be friends and partners and respectful neighbours and people want to do lots of business with each other.

But the UK government has already acknowledged that will mean some friction.

And also, until it’s all done and dusted there’s still uncertainty for businesses and people around the country who want to know exactly what is next.

But although there is legions of details to be worked out, many more political controversies along the way, be in no doubt – the fundamental question which has been hanging over the country for more than three years has been settled.

And that’s already completely changed the political dynamic – and therefore the dynamic in the country too.

A few moments ago, it looks like a man tried to gatecrash the stage at the Brexit rally, catching the security detail off guard a little.

After a brief kerfuffle, he was escorted off the premises. It's not clear if he was an anti-Brexit protester or had just got a little carried away by the occasion.

At that point, all the speakers had left the stage but the crowd chants Nigel, Nigel, Nigel and the Brexit Party leader stages an encore.

Kate Whannel
BBC News in Parliament Square

The crowd join in with the countdown and a huge cheer fills the London sky as the (recorded) Big Ben bongs herald the UK’s official exit from the EU.

The air in Westminster fills with smoke as flares are let off. Some join in with a verse of God Save the Queen.

And then?

“That’s that,“ says one woman as the crowd head towards Westminster Tube station.

“We’re gone!” screams one jubilant man.

“We were there,” says another.

But not everyone is delighted. “Gross I feel like vomiting,” one man I pass mutters under his breath.

As you would expect, there were scenes of jubilation in Parliament Square as the clock counted down to Brexit.

The moment of departure was followed by an euphoric rendition of God Save The Queen.

And with that the Brexit politician Richard Tice sends the crowd on its way home with the words "believe it or not we are no longer a member of the European Union".

Kate Whannel
BBC News in Parliament Square

The heart of Parliament Square is filled with hardcore Brexit fans - some of whom have waited half their lives for this moment.

Some have tears in their eyes as they wave their Union flags. It looks not unlike the Last Night of the Proms.

Rousing band music introduces each speaker.

Round the edge of the event, though, the mood is less festive.

Some are looking on, standing still, their expressions blank.

Others, clearly dragged here by friends, just look bored.

“I don’t even want to be here,” says one teenager down the phone. “Who cares about Brexit anyway?"