Queen's funeral: Leamington couple among thousands to camp out

David and Bonnie Robertson spent the night on the Mall in central London

Thousands of mourners have spent the night lining the route of the Queen's funeral procession in the hope of a view of history.

Among them in central London were David and Bonnie Robertson, from Lillington, Leamington Spa.

When the couple arrived on Sunday morning "there were only two or three huddles of people," Mr Robertson said.

But the number of people who then arrived in the night was "astonishing", he added.

"There are thousands of people here.

"The morning seemed to start at about five o'clock and everybody was awake and there were just people everywhere," he explained.

"People were sleeping in the strangest of places; people had come, like us, with chairs, but others were just leaning up against trees and trying to doze off, it was an astonishing sight."

Because the crowd had been "starved" of things to look at during the night "anything that goes past gets a big clap", he explained.

"So the police get a clap for walking past, the refuse trucks get a clap when they drive past."

He said the couple had been planning to be in London for the Queen's funeral for four or five years.

"We thought 'wouldn't it be great just to be part of that history'?"

He added that the crowd had been friendly but expected a "layer of solemnity" to surface.

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