LONDON—The funeral procession for former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher began here Wednesday morning, with crowds politely applauding her passing coffin amid a heavy security presence and little sign of anti-Thatcher protesters.
The funeral service for Mrs. Thatcher, the longest-serving British prime minister of the past century, will take place at 300-year-old St. Paul's Cathedral in central London and is due to start at 11 a.m. Attendees are expected to include Queen Elizabeth II, current Prime Minister David Cameron and senior figures from around the world.
Getty Images
The coffin of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher arrives at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday ahead of her funeral in London on Wednesday.
Security precautions were visible around the cathedral, with hefty barriers set up to control crowds and block vehicles; the streets will be closed to traffic from early Wednesday morning. Police are fielding more than 4,000 additional officers for the security operations and nearby businesses have been asked to deploy security guards and block off their buildings.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The coffin of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher rested overnight in the Crypt Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft beneath the Houses of Parliament in central London.
Authorities in London, which in recent years has been the target of bomb attacks by Islamic extremists and dissident Republicans from Northern Ireland, are used to providing security for high-profile events. The 2011 royal wedding and last year's Olympics—the U.K.'s largest peacetime security operation—went off without any serious security incidents.
Security concerns for the funeral of Mrs. Thatcher, who was a highly divisive figure in the U.K. during her run as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, include the potential for disturbances by anti-Thatcher protesters. The funeral also comes just two days after Monday's explosions in Boston; London is due to host its own annual marathon this Sunday.
Spectators began to gather at St. Paul's Cathedral as early as 7 a.m., and by 8:30 a.m. the area around the church began to fill up. Elsewhere along the route of the funeral procession, however, crowds were modest as the procession began, amid a heavy police presence. A smattering of protesters were out, vastly outnumbered by Britons who turned up to pay tribute or simply observe the spectacle.
St. Paul's Cathedral will be the venue for the funeral service of former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. The church has hosted momentous church, state and royal events since 1708. WSJ's Dipti Kapadia delves into the cathedral's history.
Mr. Cameron and other government ministers received a briefing Tuesday morning on plans for the funeral, code-named operation True Blue.
The Union Jack-draped coffin carrying Mrs. Thatcher's body departed by hearse from the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, where it spent the night in a chapel, at around 10 a.m. It traveled a short distance to St. Clement Danes church on the Strand, where it was moved to a horse-drawn gun carriage for the procession to the cathedral, less than a mile away.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment