Following the announcement from the Palace, Heart of London Business Alliance is deeply saddened at the news of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s passing and offer our condolences to the Royal Family.

The Metropolitan Police Service Engagement Team are holding daily drop-in meeting on MS Teams between 4pm and 4.30pm. To hear the latest updates on Operation London Bridge, click here to join.

Services and key contacts

All public services will continue throughout the mourning period. This will include street cleansing & security services provided by the Heart of London Business Alliance.

Heart of London Director of Operations, Robin Hibbert can be reached on 07841 456 937 or robin.hibbert@heartoflondonbid.co.uk.
Heart of London 24/7 on-street security team can be reached on 07432 273 388 or 07523 901 505.
Heart of London Street Cleaning Team can be reached on 07920 086 324 from 06:00am-2:00pm and 07769 741 425 from 2:00pm – 9:00pm.

Lying-in-state

Her Majesty The Queen’s coffin has now moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where she will lie in state for four days until the State Funeral. Lying-in-State at the Palace of Westminster will remain open to the public until 6.30am on Monday 19 September.

For further information, please visit Her Majesty The Queen’s Lying-in-State at the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Public queue

Large crowds are expected to attend and there are likely to be delays on public transport and road closures around the area, as the queue to visit will be very long. This is being managed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, who have released the map of how to enter the Palace. The queue will start where Albert Embankment meets Lambeth Bridge in Central London, on the south side of the River Thames. From Albert Embankment, the queue will continue along the south bank of the Thames.

A live queue tracker can be found here.

National Moment of Reflection

Ahead of Her Majesty’s Funeral, there will be a one-minute silence at 8pm on Sunday 18 September. For further details, please click here.

Her Majesty’s Funeral

The State Funeral will take place at 11:00am in Westminster Abbey on Monday 19 September, followed by a cortege to Windsor Castle travelling via Wellington Arch. There is likely to be several road closures throughout central London.

As soon as information is available, it will be communicated.

Road Closures

Friday 16 September

Lying-in-state continues at Westminster Hall which will result in restricted vehicle access to St James’ and Green Parks and Parliament Square environs. All day, the following road closures – as marked in purple – will be in place.

Victoria Embankment and Westminster Bridge will remain closed to all vehicle traffic.

Saturday 17 September

All day, the road closures will continue to be in place.

Sunday 18 September

It is likely further vehicular road closures will begin from mid-morning in Victoria, Whitehall and the Mall in preparation for the State Funeral on Monday.

Foreign Heads of State and dignitaries will arrive in London and we expect spontaneous restrictions of vehicular and some pedestrian traffic in and around the Park Lane, Mayfair and Kensington areas.

Monday 19 September

The State Funeral will take place in Westminster Abbey followed by a cortege to Windsor Castle travelling via Wellington Arch. We expect considerable vehicular road closures throughout central London coupled with more limited vehicular closures in West London.

Tuesday 20 September

There will be ongoing road closures and bus diversions as event infrastructure is removed. This is expected to take a number of days.

For the most up to date information on road closures, check the Metropolitan Police Events twitter feed.

Commercial waste services

Until Tuesday 20 September 2022, road closures and access restrictions will be in place in the area, which will affect commercial waste collections. Westminster City Council have made alternative collection arrangements for the Commercial Waste Service, meaning that your commercial waste may be collected outside of normal or expected collection times. Access will also be severely restricted due to major events in the area taking place on Wednesday 14, Thursday 15, Sunday 18, and Monday 19 September. The Council ask that on these dates you do not place bagged waste out on the street under any circumstances until Tuesday 20 September.

If you need any further support including booking extra collections or requesting any further information, then please contact Westminster City Council by phone at 020 7641 6180 or email at commercialwaste@westminster.gov.uk.

Advice on observing mourning

The Cabinet Office has created two visual toolkits to mark the National Mourning Period and the National Moment of Reflection.

National Mourning Period toolkit: A visual toolkit for partners, businesses, trade organisations, ALBs and the public sector during this time of mourning to show the country speaking with one voice of unity. If you feel it appropriate, you may display the EIIR cypher on websites, social media profiles, digital screens, and shop windows, wherever possible. Between now and, more specifically, on the day of the state funeral. Please find a link to the toolkit here: https://we.tl/t-N4w4JcHU7v

National Moment of Reflection toolkit: A National Moment of Reflection will take place at 8pm on Sunday 18 September. The Cabinet Office have created a visual toolkit for partners, businesses, trade organisations, ALBs and the public sector to raise awareness of the Moment of Reflection. If you feel it is appropriate, you may share the assets on your social channels, newsletter and with your network of contacts between now and Sunday morning. Please find a link to the toolkit here: https://we.tl/t-ljK3095Z7V

Increase in security

There will be an increase in visitors to the area during this period of National Mourning, and a number of events will be planned.

Over the next few days, Heart of London will be working closely with the Metropolitan Police and other partners to ensure these run as smoothly and as safely as possible.

We advise heightened vigilance and community communication will be essential over the next few days.

If your business is planning an event, vigil or memorials, this is a reminder to promote specific security measures you have in place are hosting as part of your communications. The ProtectUK App has the latest updates and quick access to advice and guidance.

To report key information AWMailbox-BxCommunity@metpolice.uk and or mobile number 073 4206 0236.

Public transport

Real-time travel information will be essential over the next week, as short notice temporary Tube station closures may take effect.

The Elizabeth line will run a special service with 12 trains per hour on the central section (Paddington-Abbey Wood) on Sunday 18 September to provide further transport options for customers. The East and West sections will operate as normal. Further information is available via TfL Journey Planner.
Green Park station is exit only between 10:00 and 22:00 until Monday 19 September, due to the high numbers of customers expected. Please avoid this station if possible to keep capacity for customers who need step-free access
Westminster, St James’s Park, Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner stations will have changes to the way they operate on Sunday 18 and/or Monday 19 September
Other stations expected to be busier include: Charing Cross, Embankment, Victoria, Waterloo and Lancaster Gate
Night Tube and Overground will run as normal Friday 16 and Saturday 17 September
Due to road closures, some bus services will be diverted or will stop short of their destination, and some may be running a reduced service.
Check travel planning portals such as nationalrail.co.uk and https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Support for People Experiencing Homelessness

If you or your street teams are coming across people who are ‘street active’ or sleeping rough, the best thing to do is to encourage them to access CSTM at the following times for some respite from crowds:

Wednesday (today): 9am – 4pm CSTM
Thursday: 9am – 4pm CSTM
Friday: 9am – 4pm CSTM
Saturday: 9am – 4pm CSTM
Sunday: The Passage Day Centre, 10am – 4pm, St Vincent’s Centre, Carlisle Pl, London SW1P 1NL
Monday: 9am – 4pm CSTM
If you are seeing people at night when we are closed, please complete a streetlink referral at https://www.streetlink.london/ and the night time outreach teams will pick this up.

The SET will have shifts out in the day time for the rest of the week (where possible due to crowds), and will be supporting the delivery of the day centre over the weekend and bank holiday. If there are any vulnerable people that you are particularly concerned about you can email us at SETreferrals@cstm.org.uk – but please keep in mind that due to the higher police and city inspector presence most people out there are already known to us, and there are plans in place to contact them already. We are also providing a health and social care response, and will not be able to support moving anyone on from the area, but can offer advice triage, access to basic services and support to get to CSTM.

Over the weekend email is our preferred method of contact due to reduced staffing, but if you do need to speak to a member of the team on Saturday and Monday, please contact:

Saturday: Paddy Ashworth 07736973022
Monday: Paul Grieve 07736972992