Dozens of mourners were prevented in the early hours of Monday from moving closer to Westminster Hall by police at the entrance to Victoria Tower Gardens next to Lambeth Bridge. Pauline Pearce, who queued in central London for seven hours, said queuers were given “constant misinformation”. Mrs Pearce, who was dubbed a ‘Hackney hero’ after she was filmed confronting rioters in 2011, said: ‘We all felt angry today. “We were being sent from one point to another and we were living on the false hope that they might let us in. At one point they said they would open the gates, and suddenly they didn’t. There was no empathy at all from the organizers.” Fiona Harper, 60, said the organization of the final night of the queue was marked by “incompetence” with confusion over where the wristbands would be handed out. Ms Harper said: “The problem was that we were all led to believe that you got your wristband at the end of the queue. So we were asking for an hour and a half before they told us there were no more wristbands.” Mourners, some of whom were in tears, complained to police that they had been “lied to” earlier in the night about their chances of getting into Westminster Hall. Thousands of people have made the pilgrimage to pay their respects to the late monarch over the past four days. The last mourner saw the Queen’s coffin at 6.30am. on Monday before the state funeral. (REUTERS) The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced after 10.30pm on Sunday that the last people in line had been admitted. The department said: “The queue to attend Her Majesty The Queen is at capacity and is now closed to new entrants. “Please do not attempt to join the queue. The marshals will manage those who are already nearby. “Thank you for understanding.” Mourners brawl with police outside queue to see Queen in state (REUTERS) By 9pm, waiting times were seven hours as the last crowds joined in, with people collecting wristbands to enter London Bridge. An hour earlier, people in line stopped and bowed their heads to observe the national minute of silence. They clapped to mark the end of the silence at 20.01. Dozens of Metropolitan Police officers also gathered silently alongside the mourners and later sang the national anthem. St John Ambulance had expressed concern about freezing temperatures overnight as people queued alongside the River Thames. It said in the early hours of Sunday morning that 98 people needed medical attention, while nine were taken to hospital.
