Superfans Take Over Westminster Abbey
Pitch tents to camp out and see the scene.
The two great loves of the British people are queuing (i.e. standing in line) and the monarchy. In a glorious conflation of the two, a tent city has sprung up on the doorstep of Westminster Abbey, where Prince William and Kate Middleton will wed on Friday morning. The most loyal future subjects of His Royal Highness and Princess Catherine, as we must learn to call her, were not going to be content with watching the nuptials on TV. They have been in situ all week, with tents, Union Jacks, and lashings of cockney wisdom.
The Daily Beast spoke to Terry Hutt, 76, from Cambridge, a retired carpenter and joiner, married with two children, who has been sleeping outside the abbey since Tuesday.
“I have met the queen lots of times; they call me, ‘The Union Jack Man.’ She knows who I am. She's got used to me being about. She sometimes gives me a little wave and a smile,” says a weather-beaten Hutt. “I am really looking forward to the wedding. I want to see them come out as a married couple, a future king and queen. I'm sure they will make the grade. I think it's true love. Instead of meeting each other in Buckingham Palace, they met at university, they fell in love, had their arguments, broke up and now they are back in love gain. We've all done it.”
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