Princess Diana's Funeral Part 26: The Hearse reaches the M1: the flower stop

The Hearse gets to the bottom of the M1 Motorway at Brent Cross, the site of a huge shopping mall used by people from all over North London. In 1997, it was used as a location for the filming of the James Bond movie of that year: 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. The Tesco petrol station sign reveals that a litre of unleaded cost 61.9p in September 1997, or about 35-40% less than what it cost in summer 2007 which was typically between 94.9p to 97.9p.

The police traffic officer on the passenger side has to leave the hearse momentarily to clear the flowers that people have thrown from the windscreen.

The fate of the hearse was it was mothballed for several years until it was sold by Levertons in 2003. Levertons attracted some criticism for asking a private auctioneers to discreetly sell it for a very high price and did not donate it to a museum as some people had expected.

Because of its historic connection with Diana's Funeral, the original asking price was £100,000 but was eventually sold for only 10% below that at £90,000 to an anonymous buyer. If it had not the notoriety of being Diana's hearse, it would only have been worth between £3000 and £4000.

I don't know where it is today. Please get in touch if you have any information. Its registration number is B626 MRK. A DVLA check reveals it is still on the British highways with its road tax next due for renewal on 1st July 2010. The car following, F728 OUL, however has long been off the road with the same check revealing no tax has been paid on it since 9 January 1998. I do hope it has not been scrapped, please get in touch if you know where it is now.

Thanks very much to Hendrik-Jan Thomassen for posting the interesting info about the hearse on his Daimler DS420 Limousine website.
http://www.myds420.info/hearses/articles.html

The coverage returns to Krishnan Guru-Murthy in the Mall.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Diana
• Princess
• of
• Wales
• London
• Hearse
• Brent
• Cross
• Hendon
• funeral
• 1997
• motoring
• motorway
• crowds
• police
• B626
• MRK
• flowers

[ryko26]

Diana always loved Brent Cross, she did a lot of shopping there.

[tribecatom]

If she'd done her shopping there and never gone near Harrods, the phoney Pharoh's Mickey Mouse security operation and alcoholic chauffeur may not have caused her tragic death.

[andyjdking]

would have been funnier if dimbleby had inhaled helium first. bet he made a fortune from doing that, the guy almost has a monopoly on the funeral market.

[tribecatom]

I think Question Time would be muh funnier if he did that.

[BrittinAB]

have respect...

[rockonup]

Ok its it just me or when she passes between 2:50 to - 3:50 the sun makes a path for her? Just little strange but cool you can see it if u move the scroll a littler fast to 3:50

[iThnake]

£90,000 ... What a bargain.. If I had the money I would have paid more

[deborahhanrahan]

We loved her you bastards!!

[MRKENNEDY1693]

thats uncalled for mwizards216

[gavvery]

no it will be small. because britney spears

is not the queen okay

[mwizard216]

when britney spears dies, her cortege will be twice as big!!

[dalcon555]

thats why i don't have a car anymore, i'd rather just take the bus eh?