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Wednesday 17 April 2013

Mourners Sleep On The Streets As Thatcher's Coffin Sits In Westminster

At last, she was coming back to where she belonged.

Through busy streets, past some of the landmarks of her time in office, Baroness Thatcher was returned to Parliament yesterday, scene of some of her greatest triumphs.
After so long out of the public eye, the former prime minister was allowed to take centre stage again on this, the first leg of her final journey.
There were no military bands, no massed crowds lining the streets, and none of the pomp and ceremony that will accompany her funeral today. More pictures after the cut....


Back in Parliament: Baroness Thatcher's coffin resting in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft beneath the Palace of Westminster
Back in Parliament: Baroness Thatcher's coffin resting in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft beneath the Palace of Westminster
Return: The former Prime Minister served for 33 years in the House of Commons and another two decades in the House of Lords
Return: The former Prime Minister served for 33 years in the House of Commons and another two decades in the House of Lords; St Mary Undercroft, where her coffin is resting, is all that remains of St Stephen's Chapel, where the House of Commons sat before the fire of 1834
First to arrive: Spectators gather by St Paul's Cathedral along the route of today's funeral procession. Many had arrived by 6.30am
First to arrive: Spectators gather by St Paul's Cathedral along the route of today's funeral procession. Many had arrived by 6.30am

But the 30 minutes it took to transport her coffin across London was a prelude to Lady Thatcher’s last stand – her return to the Palace of Westminster, the battleground where she made her name.
It began with her coffin being placed into a standard hearse at a funeral directors’ headquarters in North London and draped in a Union Jack.

Then five motorcycle outriders and a shadowing police helicopter escorted it through the capital’s busy weekday traffic to a splendid, temporary resting place in readiness for the big day.
In defiance of the anarchy threatened for her funeral, the journey was punctuated by simple ripples of applause, and even provoked a few cheers along the way.
Cars came to a standstill as drivers realised this was no ordinary procession.
Lining the streets: Mourners carrying banners, signs and flags gather along the route, hours in advance
Lining the streets: Mourners carrying banners, signs and flags gather along the route, hours in advance
Sign of respect: Bashkim Krasniqi, 28, from Kosovo, holds up a sign along the route. He grabbed his spot before dawn to ensure a good view of the procession
Sign of respect: Bashkim Krasniqi, 28, from Kosovo, holds up a sign along the route. He grabbed his spot before dawn to ensure a good view of the procession
Early birds: Cameras at the ready, these supporters gathered to pay their final respects to the former prime minister
Early birds: Cameras at the ready, these supporters gathered to pay their final respects to the former prime minister
Proud police officers take their places outside St Clement Danes this morning, ahead of the funeral procession
Proud police officers take their places outside St Clement Danes this morning, ahead of the funeral procession

Tourists, passers-by and a scattering of spectators suddenly found themselves witnessing a moment in history.
Untypical among them was artist Kaya Mar, 57, holding a symbolic painting of Lady Thatcher and what he called ‘Britain’s haves and have-nots’.
He arrived in Britain more than three decades ago from Turkey and France when the Labour-run country was crippled by strikes and left stinking with uncollected rubbish on the streets.
‘I am a socialist,’ Mr Mar told me. ‘But I know Margaret Thatcher had no choice but to do what she did to get the country running again. One day, sooner or later, England will need another Margaret Thatcher.’
Arrival: Lady Thatcher's coffin being carried into the Palace of Westminster this afternoon ahead of today's funeral
Arrival: Lady Thatcher's coffin being carried into the Palace of Westminster yesterday ahead of today's funeral
Mark Thatcher (left) and his children Amanda and Michael with Carol Thatcher in the background and her partner Marco Grass, leaving St Paul's Cathedral today
Mark Thatcher (left) and his children Amanda and Michael with Carol Thatcher in the background and her partner Marco Grass, leaving St Paul's Cathedral yesterday
Amanda Thatcher
Michael Thatcher
Grandchildren: Sir Mark's children Amanda, left, and Michael, right, also attended the service in the Palace of Westminster
In mourning: Carol Thatcher and her partner Marco Grass
Mark Thatcher with his wife Sarah, leave the home of his late mother, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
In mourning: Carol Thatcher and her partner Marco Grass (left). Mark Thatcher with his wife Sarah, leave the home of his late mother, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (right)
In the distance as he spoke, the hearse was about to pass within sight of Downing Street before driving slowly up to the Lords’ entrance to Parliament. 
Here, maybe only by chance, the Iron Lady lay briefly in the shadow of a bronze statue of Richard the Lionheart.
An undertaker lifted a large wreath – a circle of white roses with a hand-written card inscribed: ‘Beloved Mother, Always in our Hearts’ – from the coffin to allow four pall-bearers in black ties to carry the casket inside.
And then, moments before Big Ben sounded the hour, she was gone from public view.
Once, Lady Thatcher would have taken her place inside as the dominant figure at the heart of some rowdy Commons debate, surrounded by baying enemies and noisy allies.
Now, in a solitary coffin beneath the silent, vaulted emptiness of an ornate crypt, she was alone. For the next 18 hours, ahead of today’s procession to St Paul’s, she was scheduled to remain in the marble and stone surroundings of the chapel of St Mary Undercroft, deep beneath St Stephen’s Hall.

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