Queues to see the Queen lying in state reach three miles

The Government is issuing live updates on the end point of the route, and has published lengthy guidance for those planning on attending.

It is expected as many as 750,000 could join the queue, with mourners able to attend the lying-in-state between the afternoon of Wednesday, September 9 and the morning of the funeral - Monday, September 19.

The vigil will remain active 24 hours a day, with mourners filing through in silence.

They will pass the coffin of the Queen on a raised platform - known as a catafalque - draped with a Royal Standard.

On top of the standard are a wreath made of flowers from Balmoral and Windsor Castles, as well as the Imperial State Crown.

Before the hall had opened to the public, the queue already stretched across Lambeth Bridge onto the Albert Embankment.

It then proceeded along the south side of the river, behind the London Eye, past the Southbank Centre and National Theatre, and along to Blackfriars Bridge and Tate Modern.

At the time of writing, the queue stretches 2.8 miles.

The Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which has played a leading part in organising the queue, has said there is capacity for five miles, eventually reaching Southwark Park.

Many of the huge crowds who stood to watch the Queen taken from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall then walked to join the queue.

It is expected to be at its longest over the weekend.

Transport networks in London as well as across the country are expected to be significantly busier than usual, as people travel from far and wide to pay their respects.

Motorway roadworks have been suspended until after the funeral to ease congestion, while around 200 extra trains have been laid on, including some running through the night to help get people to the capital.

The head of Transport for London has said his organisation is facing the biggest challenge in its history.

Andy Byford, the organisation’s commissioner, said planning for the Queen’s lying in state and funeral is more complicated than the 2012 Olympics as it is “impossible” to accurately predict crowd sizes.

TfL is “used to dealing with big crowds” and will take measures such as temporarily restricting access to the busiest tube stations and directing passengers to other stations to “spread the load”, he said.

Mr Byford added that the situation is being managed “minute by minute” from a command centre alongside other agencies and Government departments.

London Underground stations near Buckingham Palace have seen a surge in passenger numbers since the Queen died on Thursday.

TfL figures show more than 19,000 people started or finished journeys at Hyde Park Corner station on Tuesday, which was double the total on the same day last week.

Green Park has been made an exit only station to prevent overcrowding.

Across the Tube network as a whole, TfL recorded 2.99 million journeys on Tuesday, up 8% compared with a week earlier.

Mr Byford said: “The most recent approximation or estimate is that there will be around potentially up to 750,000 people in the queue for lying in state, which is itself a huge number.

“But then if you take the whole 10-day mourning period and the various events that happen during that – obviously some happened elsewhere – but even the London element of that, we are talking well north of a million people.”