Queen arrives at Buckingham Palace as Harry and Meghan join royals to receive coffin

The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II has completed its final journey to Buckingham Palace, where it was received by King Charles III, and a sea of mourners outside the gates.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly travelled from Windsor Castle to join other royals at the late Queen’s long-standing residence in Westminster, as the hearse carrying her coffin drove from RAF Northolt along streets lined with well-wishers.

Following the late monarch’s death at Balmoral Castle, after a 70-year reign, her body was taken to Edinburgh, where it lay in state at St Giles’ Cathedral, with tens of thousands queuing – some through the night – to pay their respects before her coffin was flown to RAF Northolt on Tuesday evening.

Crowds braved the rain and wind to line the hearse’s route as it drove through the capital to Buckingham Palace, making its way past Marble Arch, Park Lane and Hyde Park Corner shortly before 8pm.

There were smatters of applause and cheers of “hip hip hooray” as the coffin approached the palace, with people putting down their umbrellas as a sign of respect and others shining lights on their smartphones, either in tribute or to document the historic moment.

There was no footage broadcast from inside Buckingham Palace’s quadrangle as the late monarch’s children, grandchildren and their spouses privately received her coffin on the steps of the grand entrance.

Lady Sarah Chatto and Earl Snowdon, the children of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, were also among the group to pay their respects to their aunt. Standing in the palace’s quadrangle was a guard of honour formed from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, which gave the royal salute as the hearse came to a stop.

The bearer party, from the Queen’s Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, carried the coffin into the Bow Room as the sovereign’s piper, Pipe Major Paul Burns of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, played a lament.

The coffin will remain in the room overnight before being taken in a procession to Westminster Hall on Wednesday for public viewing ahead of the Queen’s funeral.

Up to a million people are expected to descend upon the capital to pay their respects, with an emergency government Cobra meeting reportedly told that visitors could face queues of between 17 and 35 hours to view the Queen’s coffin.

King Charles had earlier travelled from Northern Ireland for the first visit by a king to the region in 80 years, where he met with Stormont leaders at the royal residence of Hillsborough Castle.

Describing his mother as having “never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and for its people”, the new monarch pledged to “seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland”.

Alongside the Queen Consort, he arrived back at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening, in one of a number of convoys of black cars seen at the palace gates, carrying dignitaries and politicians, including leader of the Commons, Penny Mordaunt.

Liz Truss, the prime minister, was among those on the tarmac to greet the RAF plane carrying the Queen’s coffin as it touched down in London.

Accompanying her late mother on the journey from Edinburgh, Anne, the Princess Royal, released a statement in which she said that doing so had “been an honour and a privilege”.

“Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting,” Princess Anne said. “We will all share unique memories. I offer my thanks to each and every one who share our sense of loss.

“We may have been reminded how much of her presence and contribution to our national identity we took for granted ... To my mother, The Queen, thank you.”

Additional reporting by PA