I don’t know.”Īround the British capital, boisterous pubs and buzzing restaurants fell silent at the news.Īlistair Jeffrey, 29, a bartender, was having a beer outside the Victoria pub in Dalston, an East London neighborhood, when he learned of the queen’s death. We have a new prime minister who claims she can solve it. “The cost of everything is increasing pay is not. “We have a lot else going on here than the queen,” he said. “I don’t feel good or bad about her,” said Jaswinder Singh, a restaurant worker who was leaving his shift early Thursday in the tony Mayfair neighborhood, near Buckingham Palace, as the commotion interrupted his usual commute home across the River Thames. Not everyone saw it as a watershed moment. National mourning and remembrance, as well as adjustment to life under a new monarch, will last for days, if not weeks. In a brief statement, Charles paid tribute to a “cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother.”īritish and television radio stations all switched to coverage of the queen’s death. “I should finish it by saying, ‘God save the new king.’” “I suppose the British monarchy goes on,” the captain told passengers. “I thought I should at least tell you before you arrive at the terminal, as I know many will be very, very sad about this,” he said, calling it the “saddest of days.” Cabin crew wept in the rear of the plane and passed teary-eyed up and down the aisles. Telling passengers he had sorrowful news to convey and wanted to give people time to reflect, the captain said the long-lived monarch had died with her family by her side. Kennedy Airport to London‘s Heathrow, the captain took to the intercom shortly before landing to inform passengers of Elizabeth’s passing. The BBC’s presenters had switched to somber black garb even before the official announcement of Elizabeth’s death, first flashing on smartphone and television screens, then swiftly spread to stunned passersby.Īboard a British Airways flight from New York’s John F. Britain has emerged as one of the staunchest international supporters of war-battered Ukraine, with all the obligations that entails. Winter portends a punishing energy crunch, with gas and oil prices skyrocketing past what many can afford.Įconomic and social fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, the 2020 split from the European Union, is only now beginning to be fully felt.
The death of Elizabeth, whose seven decades on the throne provided a powerful sense of national continuity, comes at a turbulent juncture for Britain.Ī new and untested prime minister, Liz Truss, is at the political helm, having formally presented herself to the queen only two days earlier. Instead, she saw what would likely be a once-in-a-lifetime event, the real-time grieving for a dead queen. Pictures of corgis lit up their smartphones - the queen’s favorite dog breed - as did photos of Elizabeth waving to crowds in the 1950s and others of more recent public appearances, including with then-President Obama and his wife, Michelle.Īmal Shezad, an American visiting from New York, said she had come to get a glimpse of a familiar touristic sight, the changing of the guard. Later, they switched to different lyrics: “God save the king,” in recognition of the seamless transition to a new sovereign, King Charles III, the late queen’s eldest son.Ībove the coalescing throngs at the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, a rainbow implausibly appeared - a scene captured in countless photos and that swiftly spread online.
She was the constant.”Īs word spread earlier in the day that members of the royal family were hurrying to the queen’s side at her summer retreat of Balmoral Castle, in Scotland, crowds in the capital broke into a rendition of “God Save the Queen.” “She is one public person in this country who has been present on TV, in news, for my entire life.
“It’s a somber moment,” said Jeffrey Julien, 57, a Londoner who watched the British flag being lowered to half-staff to mark Elizabeth’s death. Others gazed around somberly, lost in their own thoughts.Įven before the formal announcement late Thursday afternoon of Queen Elizabeth II’s death at 96, as the day’s last light was vanishing amid bursts of rain, crowds had begun to form outside the palace, the official residence of British monarchs since the 19th century. LONDON - By the dozens, then the hundreds, then the thousands, Britons from all walks of life converged on the ornate gates of Buckingham Palace in central London, first in fearful anticipation, then in mourning for the only monarch that virtually any of them had ever known. Jaweed Kaleem and Christina Boyle / Los Angeles Times (TNS)
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