London streets ‘eerily quiet’ after Queen’s death, says Saskatoon man in U.K.

Tim Gitzel never imagined he would be witnessing history during a business trip to London.

The Cameco CEO happened to be in the city attending a nuclear conference when it was announced Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II had died.

Gitzel experienced what he described as a “heaviness” come over the city as the news rapidly spread across the United Kingdom.

“You could just see it in the people in the hotel and out on the street,” he said. “It was eerily quiet on the streets (Thursday) night.”

Gitzel’s hotel is not far from Buckingham Palace, where he says huge crowds have gathered outside the gates to lay flowers and break into song with “God Save the Queen.”

“It’s quite a sight,” he said. “(There’s) a lot of grief and a lot of mourning.”

The Queen’s reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the second-longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country.

Gitzel says even for non-supporters of the monarchy, it’s hard not to appreciate what the Queen accomplished during her seven-decade reign.

“There are people at this conference from around the world. To the person, (there’s) deeper respect for the Queen whether you believed in the monarchy or not,” he said, adding all of their meetings are beginning with a moment of silence.

It’s not the first royal death the Saskatoon man has experienced.

Gitzel was also in London around the same time when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash 25 years ago, comparing the mood as very similar.