The Unfortunate Reason Dirt Lined The Streets During The Queen's Funeral Procession
Queen Elizabeth's funeral was as lengthy and elaborate as anyone might have expected for the end of the longest reign in history. The days' long mourning period was planned down to the minute, with not even the tiniest detail left forgotten. Unfortunately, not even the meticulous royal staff who helped organize the grand event could have prevented the yards of dirt — rather than grass — that lined the streets of London during the queen's last funeral procession. Not even Buckingham Palace can stop climate change.
The queen's official funeral capped the 10-day official mourning period that began after her death in Balmoral, Scotland, on September 8, 2022, per The New York Times. The day began with a funeral service at Westminster Abbey, another long procession through London, and finally a 25-mile drive to Windsor Castle, where she has been laid to rest at St. George's Chapel. The whole thing was televised, which means the public got to see the royal funeral minute-by-minute.
The dirt was due to a record-breaking drought in the U.K.
The unsightly dirt you may have seen watching Queen Elizabeth's funeral on TV was not due to any negligence on the part of royal gardeners or London groundskeepers. The culprit was a history-making drought in the U.K., with intense heat waves hitting the country all summer and the driest July in England since 1935 — long before Elizabeth became queen, according to the The Guardian. And drought conditions are expected to continue across several regions in England into the fall months as well.
While we could have wished for a greener funeral procession for the beloved queen, The Guardian has also reported on more serious potential consequences of the ongoing drought in the country. This includes the possibility of food shortages in the near future, as farmers have been unable to maintain their crop yields with so little groundwater after the extreme dry period. Perhaps the queen's televised funeral could also help spread the word of a potential looming crisis in the United Kingdom.