The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 2

The Guardian Tuesday September 2 1997 The death of Diana 'Looking back, it was probably the happiesttime of her life. You get the sense that she is coming Betty Andrews, former Althorp cook Thousands of mourners line up at St James's Palace to sign the condolence book for the Princess. Some had to wait for five hours before reaching the head of the queue, and the palace is being kept open 24 hours a day until midnight on Friday The arievina: A very British mood prevails as an orderly queue forms in the Mall UNCERTAIN what to do next, the British followed their instincts and began to queue. At eight o'clock yesterday morning it was possible to walk straight in to the anteroom at St James's Palace to send formal condolences on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. By lunchtime the official waiting time was two hours.

By mid-afternoon it was three and a half hours, and the line stretched down the Mall, almost to Trafalgar Square. By 9 pm the wait was seven hours, and many prepared to wait all night. Foreign tourists did not seem enthused by this prospect and turned away. The British, however, reacted differently. The waiting crowd seemed as near as it is possible to get to a cross-section of the country: young and old; men and women; rich and poor; black and white.

Many of them were carrying flowers. Only the time-pressed and the hyper-sophisticated were missing. It did not seem as though they were responding to something terrible. It was as if we were queuing for Wimbledon or Cup Final tickets or the sales or the No 38 bus on a particularly bad day. Or Lenin's tomb, come to that.

There was a lot of humour, and banter with the police. Underneath, though, there was a sense of determination: a feeling that one had to do something, and that this was an appropriate response. Sensible people had brought bags of pastries; the very prudent had portable stools. One half-expected them to bring out camping stoves and start cooking lunch. As the line turned into Marlborough Road for the home stretch, the mood became a little more reverent, but only a little.

The atmosphere was not conducive to silent contemplation. Builders were drilling close by. Fire engines raced past. Planes passed overhead. The traffic in Pall Mall roared on regardless.

Eventually, we were ushered though the metal detectors, past various flunkeys who looked as if they had been hired from Har-rods, in over-the-top red tail coats with brass buttons, and invited to join one final queue, leading into a long, cream-painted chamber with red drapes and subdued lighting. "It's like going to the bank," said the woman in front of me. And so it was. We were obviously half-expected, because the sign saying "The Book of Condolence Queue" was not new, and had presumably lain in store since Churchill died. But the object of the exercise was a touch confused.

We were not fulfilling the old tradition of filing past the coffin. In this particular case, that would have seemed like a further act of voyeurism. We were not paying our respects at the house. The Royal Family has not lived here since the reign of William IV. And these days most people are not quite sure what St James's Palace is for.

Furthermore, this bit at the back, though handsome enough, looks rather unroyal, more like a gymnasium block at one of the finer public schools. To cap it all, there was not even a condolence book, merely five separate ring-binders, containing black-edged blank paper, placed on tables with purple cloths. This clearly shocked everyone. They had expected something like a church visitors' book or a hotel register. There was no guidance about what to say, or how much.

"I thought you just signed your name," said the woman in front. "No," said her friend, "you've got to do a little message." It was not even clear who exactly we were condoling. William and Harry, of course. But who else? The Queen? Charles? Ourselves? These problems were what made the queue so slow. Many people took a long while, and composed mini-essays.

Heaven knows who will ever read them. Then there was another problem. There was nowhere to put the flowers. The habit of placing floral tributes as a response to public grief seems to have developed since the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. Every road crash, every murder, now attracts its share.

It is a beautiful custom, perhaps one that could only develop in a society which has come as close as any in history to making early death a rarity. But, in memory of this most rootless of human beings, there was no obvious place for the flowers to go. So a whole stack of ad hoc sites developed, including the kindergarten where she worked and the gym where turn to page 3, column 1 Matthew Engel joins the mourners waiting to sign the condolence book Striking a delicate balance Route from St. James's Palace 1 1 to Westminster Abbey MjHBHMjWjwBHHJHHjlvaM The funeral: Three-way discussions pave the way to a compromise cess, is understood to have initially pressed for a private David Hencke and Alan Travis HE "unique fu-BWneral" on Satur- day of Diana, i Princess of Crowds gather and masses of flowers and mementoes are placed outside Kensington Palace in London yesterday view of the public nature of tunerai. The Palace, while in favour of a public funeral, wanted the occasion to fall well short of the full state funeral, only in the past afforded to reigning monarchs or national heroes such Wellington and Churchill.

Officially the Palace no longer had any contingency arrangements for a state funeral once Diana lost her "HRH" title as part of her divorce settlement. She was no longer an official member of the Royal Family, although she still enjoyed the unique status of being part of it. So officials at the Lord Chamberlain's office, who represent the royal household, had to start from scratch. One official said yesterday: "Basically the Palace was caught on the hop. They never thought they would have to arrange such an event." What followed and certainly contributed to the delay in the announcement were a series of tense mid-air conversations between members of Earl Spencer's family and the Palace, while Prince Charles was on his way to Paris and back to pick up his former wife's body.

The Spencer family insisted that they wanted to bury Diana in the family vault at St Wales, will be a delicate compromise between the public demand for a fitting farewell to the "people's princess" and pressure from her family for a private burial. The decision to hold the service at Westminster Abbey, followed by a private burial in Northamptonshire, follows 24 hours of delicate and sensitive negotiations between Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, and her close family, led by her brother, Earl Spencer. Pressure for a great state event to reflect the outpouring of affection and grief for the princess came from Downing Street. Buckingham Palace has, however, insisted that the pomp and ceremony of a full state funeral attended only by the "great and the good" would not be appropriate in the circumstances, and the final arrangements fall short of that official status. Earl Spencer, who on Sunday attacked newspaper proprietors and editors for having "blood on their hands" by paying for the paparazzi's intrusive pictures of the prin PHOTOGRAPH: SEAN SMITH neral in nearly all but name.

Diana's arrangements are closest to those for Lord Mountbatten after his assassination by the INLA. The occasion featured a full military procession with gun carriages and army bands playing, as the funeral cortege made its way down Whitehall. There was no lying instate. The official arrangements for the Duke of Windsor were different, although as in this case there was much discussion at Buckingham Palace about what should be done The Queen had wanted to play things down and the general principle was established 'to err, but only a little, on the side of For turn Have hJo including representatives of people she had helped as well as foreign dignatories. Downing Street later described the funeral as a "state event for a People's Princess." A No 10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister thinks the outpouring of grief has been a reflection of the depth and affection and appreciation that people felt for Princess Diana and that the funeral should reflect that." Earl Spencer, who returned from South Africa to his ancestral home at Althorp yesterday, also publicly backed the arrangements, while stressing his family's determination to bury Diana in privacy.

A statement said: "The Spencer family has wholeheartedly agreed that it would be appropriate for Diana, Princess of Wales, to receive a public funeral at Westminster Mary's, Great Brington, near their estate, Althorp Park, in Northamptonshire. The Palace became increasingly aware as the public left flowers by their thousands outside Diana's former residence, Kensington Palace, that there should be a public event so that people could pay their respects to their princess. At first Downing Street left Buckingham Palace and the Spencer family to arrange the funeral. But Downing Street later intervened when it became clear that the growing strength of public feeling about Diana's death would demand the equivalent of a state funeral. The idea for a "people's funeral came from Downing Street.

Last night after Diana's body had been taken to a private mortuary a compromise was reached, aimed at satisfying all sides. Diana's body was moved to the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace with the agreement of the Spencer family and the Palace. Buckingham Palace announced the details, describing the event as "a unique funeral for a unique A spokesman said: "We are taking into account the wishes of the family and the need to allow people to express publicly their grief and their affection for the princess. "The funeral will contain the usual elements of a royal funeral, and in particular elements to reflect the affection with which the Princess was held." This includes a funeral procession from St James's to Westminster Abbey and a televised service, with guests Abbey on Saturday, after which her coffin will be brought to Althorp. "The family acknowledges that it is right and proper that the people of Britain have their chance to pay their respects to Diana.

"From London, she will be accompanied to Althorp Park, and then will be taken to St Mary's, Great Brington, where her body will be laid to rest with 500 years of her Spencer ancestors, including her father, in the Spencer Chapel. "The family would like to point out that this part of the day will be entirely private, with only immediate members of Diana's family in attendance for a very brief ceremony, to be conducted by a priest who is a family friend. "Respect for the family's privacy at this stage is thought to be only just, in the earlier part of the day." The detailed arrangements fall slightly short of the full pomp and circumstance of an official state funeral. Downing Street made clear yesterday that the usual bloc of ambassadors who attend major state events would not be expected, although some world leaders, including President Chirac of France, had already expressed an interest in being there. "There should be people there who represented the causes she touched and the people that she touched," said a spokesman for Tony Blair.

Before finally settling the arrangements, Palace officials looked closely at the two most recent precedents, the funerals of the Duke of Windsor in 1972 and of Lord Mountbatten's in 1979, which amounted to a full state fu- mum was displayed at St George's Chapel, Windsor, but there was n.crria6e Procession up Whitehall..