Pictures: Different times, same culture

Some 48 years, two months, 16 days and – if you look very closely at the clocks – just a few minutes separate these images of the two solemn events. But, apart from a few radical additions to the City of London’s skyline, it is almost as if time has stood still. You cannot help but be struck by the remarkable similarities between the two scenes. Even the Queen struck an almost identical pose to the one she adopted yesterday, with her handbag hooked over her left arm and her hands clutched in front of her, as she contemplated the loss of Sir Winston, the first of the 12 Prime Ministers to have served during her reign.

In 1965, Winston Churchill was buried and now Margaret Thatcher. Nothing seems to have changed.

Police prepare for mass riots at Thatcher's funeral in biggest security operation since the Olympics

Baroness Thatcher will be laid to rest amidst one of the biggest security operations in London's history

Police are preparing to carry out the biggest security operation in London since last year's Olympics

A ring of steel is being erected in London this afternoon in preparation for Margaret Thatcher's funeral.

Hordes of workers are putting up metal railings along the funeral route, while TV equipment is being rigged up at St Paul's Cathedral.

Wednesday's ceremonial funeral is expected to see the biggest security operation in London since last year's Olympics.

Margaret Thatcher in pictures

She is pictured (below) through a period of 6 decades. On her wedding day in 1951, in 1970 as education and science secretary, on ITV programme Weekend World in 1981, in a 2004 portrait, and celebrating her 87th birthday in London last October.

Margaret Thatcher dead at 87 following stroke

Margaret Thatcher, the most dominant British prime minister since Winston Churchill in 1940 and a global champion of the late 20th-century free market economic revival, has died.

Her spokesman, Lord Bell, said on Monday: "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning.

"Downing Street announced that she would receive a ceremonial funeral with military honours at St Paul's Cathedral.

Thatcher, who was 87, had been in declining health for some years, suffering from dementia. The death of Sir Denis Thatcher, her husband of 50 years and closest confidante, intensified her isolation in what had proved a frustrating retirement, despite energetic worldwide activity in the early years.

"A further statement will be made later" said Lord Bell