The queues stretching for miles across London from where she is lying in state in Westminster Hall have been forming for a few days now

In the face of national mourning and an almost universal outpouring of grief, the unstoppable British spirit has brought a moment of light-hearted levity that even The Queen would surely have appreciated. And it's all being played out on the most mundane of subjects in the only place you'd expect it to - on Twitter.

Despite her age, nobody can deny that the passing of our monarch has brought a universal sadness that has united the UK and Commonwealth like nothing since wartime - a time, as it happens, when she also shone in the eyes of millions of her subjects. All day, every day remarkable images are emerging, some making us sad, some reflective and some thankful.

As the process of saying farewell to the 96-year-old after her 70-year reign continues, one of the latest of many unprecedented phenomena has been that queue. It's hard even to get our heads around the figures - three miles long, 30-hour waits to quietly file past the coffin containing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II lying in state in Westminster Hall.

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Of course this country has raised queuing to an art form - and it didn't take long for the famous British sense of humour to shine through. The hashtag #TheQueue has taken Twitter by storm since news of and videos and photos from the remarkable line of hopeful respect-payers started emerging yesterday (September 14) ahead of her funeral on Monday (September 19).

And the creativity and genius is something to behold - further proof of the truth of these proud attributes of Britishness and, dare we say it, something the Queen herself would've even appreciated, given her well-known and much vaunted wicked sense of humour.

Thousands of people have visited her coffin as she lies in state at first in Edinburgh, and now in London. Elizabeth II was moved down to the capital in a ceremony watched my millions more, who travelled from all over to see off a woman who had been in the periphery of their lives since they could remember.

So many people wanted to go that a wristband system has been put in place to make sure everyone gets their chance. As long as they wait in The Queue.

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And thus, the largest line of people in the world formed. Snaking through London, miles long, thousands of people remain in The Queue at a time.

Twitter user @curiousiguana started things off with a Tweet which has since gone viral. Their fantastic observation of The Queue read: "Right, everyone. I need to be serious for a moment. Because the greatest thing that ever happened is happening right now.

"I don't particularly care either way about the Queen. But the queue? The Queue is a triumph of Britishness. It's incredible.

"Just to be clear: I don't mean the purpose of the queue. I don't mean the outpouring of emotion or collective grief or the event at the end and around the queue or the people in the queue. I mean, literally, the queue. The queue itself. It's like something from Douglas Adams [author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books].

"It is the motherlode of queues. It is art. It is poetry. It is the queue to end all queues. It opened earlier today and is already 2.2 miles long. They will close it if it gets to FIVE MILES. That's a queue that would take TWO HOURS TO WALK at a brisk pace.

"It is a queue that goes right through the entirety of London. It has toilets and water points and websites just for The Queue. You cannot leave The Queue. You cannot get into The Queue further down. You cannot hold places in The Queue. There are wristbands for The Queue."

There are even rules for The Queue, given it's such a unique situation. People can't take sleeping bags, you can't have chairs, and you cannot leave and return to it to nip off for a snack.

The location of the back of The Queue is a mystery to many. Hour-by-hour updates and forecasts on where you can join as it snakes largely along The Thames are posted online and everyone seems to want to find it.

One user, Richard Wood, said he was "unhappy with the pace of The Queue". According to his calculations and counting, 1,789 people visited the casket in the space of an hour.

This meant 235,489 people could visit her majesty in total. He wrote: "#TheQueue needs to deliver for the people. Gutted if u queued for 2 days and found out your number 235490. God Save The Queue!"

Others have marvelled at the sheer absurdity of the situation. Peter Hayes said: "I want aliens to land in London right now and have #TheQueue explained to them. "People standing at Southwark bridge walking to Westminster who won't get there for literally 24 hours. Insane."

Vermillion Wine wrote: "The producers of The Crown must be freaking out at the amount of CGI they will need for The Queue."

One person suggested calling The Queue 'The Elizabeth line'.

James Kay added: "I have a burning desire to join #TheQueue… I don’t care for the royals in the slightest, but as a British man, I love a queue and this is the final boss of queues. God Save The Queue."

One user had an idea on how to improve The Queue. An idea that many have shunned as blasphemy. John Roberts wrote: "To be just perfect there should have been two queues. Then people can worry about which one is longer and once in it fret as to whether the other one is moving faster."

As of today (September 15), The Queue was around 2.8 miles long and snaked back all the way to near the Tower of London. This meant it not only stretched through much of the centre of our capital - it required people to cross a river to finish it.

The British phenomenon of queueing was epitomised by user @rainy101, who admitted: "I will avoid central London this weekend, because I'm likely to join #thequeue by accident and be too embarrassed to leave when I realise."

Sympathising with many residents of The Queue, one anonymous Florence Nightingale-esque figure has been offering out chocolates to people. In other areas, water is being given out.

User George Gowing Tweeted that The Queue should be immortalised in its own right: "This is the last in a simply lovely thread, praising the glory & magnificence of The Queue & its 4½ day reign. #TheQueue must become the future symbol of England when it takes back sovereignty & boots out Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. #GodSaveTheQueue."

And as for thoughts about queuing in general the scenes have prompted, Ben Rathe mused amusingly: "Queue is such a great word. The actual important letter, and then four more silently waiting behind it in a line.."

BBC journalist Robert Rea gave a mixed review of The Queue: "So that was a night of my life I won’t get back. I never really intended to queue up for so long, but hey, you do the first hour and it’s all quite fun, and the second isn’t so bad, because you’re chatting to all the people around you and stuffing your face with sweets.

"And then by the time the third hour rolls around, you’ve already invested your time in the queue, and it’s moving and you think, well, it’s probably only an hour or two more, look, there’s the London Eye, we’re not that far away now. And then by the end of the fourth hour, something just gets hold of you and makes you determined not to quit now, not now you’ve been queuing so long. And after that you’re in for the long haul, whatever it takes!"

He went on to say that by the end of it, "somehow", it was worth it.

People have met friends in The Queue, and I'm certain people have made enemies in it. The Queue is Britain, and we are all The Queue.

To sum The Queue up, I'll leave you in the capable hands of @CuriousIguana, who finished: "And the end of the queue is a box. You will walk past the box, slowly, but for no more than a minute. Then you will exit into the London drizzle and make your way home.

"Tell me this isn't the greatest bit of British performance art that has ever happened? I'm giddy with joy. It's fantastic. We are a deeply, deeply mad people with an absolutely unshakeable need to join a queue. It's utterly glorious."

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