Flowers and teddies for Queen are removed by horse-drawn wagons in London

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Floral tributes to the Queen have been removed from Royal Parks in London as the royal mourning period draws to a close.

Staff and volunteers loaded horse-drawn wagons with decaying foliage at Green Park on Monday for them to be taken to the Hyde Park nursery, then composted in Kensington Gardens.

The compost will then be used on landscaping projects and shrubberies across the Royal Parks.

People look at floral tributes before Royal Parks staff and volunteers start removing them from Green Park on Monday

The removal of public tributes marks a week since the state funeral, with the official period of royal mourning ending today.

Flags at royal residences that have remained at half-mast since the Queen’s death will return to full mast at 8am on Tuesday.

The foliage will be taken to the Hyde Park nursery then composted in Kensington Gardens. Credit: PA

Blooms that have deteriorated will have any remaining packaging, cards and labels removed, while talks continue into how teddies and artefacts will be dealt with.

The Queen was laid to rest together with the Duke of Edinburgh on Monday 19 September in a private service attended by the King and the royal family, which followed her state funeral at Westminster Abbey and committal service in Windsor.

Staff and volunteers loaded horse-drawn wagons with decaying foliage at Green Park on Monday Credit: PA

Her name has been inscribed alongside her mother’s, father’s and husband’s on a stone ledger in the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where the monarch was buried.

The black stone slab, which is new, has been set into the floor after replacing the old stone that had the names George VI and Elizabeth inscribed in gold lettering.

The fresh stone now contains, in list form, “George VI 1895-1952” and “Elizabeth 1900-2002” followed by a metal Garter Star, and then “Elizabeth II 1926-2022” and “Philip 1921-2021”.

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