Operation London Bridge

Part of a series of articles on the
Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II
Events
Reactions Operation London Bridge The Queue List of state funeral dignitaries Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day Demise Honours
Compositions
Like as the hart Who shall separate us? Sleep, Dearie, Sleep
Succession
Charles III Proclamation of accession Coronation
v t e

Operation London Bridge was the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II. The plan included the announcement of her death, the period of official mourning, and the details of her state funeral. The plan was created as early as the 1960s and revised many times in the years before her death in September 2022.

The phrase "London Bridge is down" was to be used to communicate the death of the Queen to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and key personnel, setting the plan into motion. Bodies involved in preparing the plan included various government departments, the Church of England, Metropolitan Police Service, the British Armed Forces, the media, the Royal Parks, London boroughs, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London. Some critical decisions relating to the plan were made by the Queen herself, while some were left to be determined by her successor. Reporting on the preparations, The Guardian described them as "planned to the minute" with "arcane and highly specific" details.^[1]

Several other plans were also created to support the implementation of Operation London Bridge, such as Operation Unicorn (the plan that detailed what was to happen if Elizabeth were to die in Scotland, which she did). Running concurrently with Operation London Bridge were operations concerning King Charles III's accession to the throne and coronation. Several Commonwealth realms developed their own plans for how to react to the death of the Queen.