At last, she was coming back to where she belonged. Through busy streets, past some of the landmarks of her time in office, Baroness Thatcher was returned to Parliament yesterday, scene of some of her greatest triumphs, The Daily Mail reports.

After so long out of the public eye, the former prime minister was allowed to take centre stage again on this, the first leg of her final journey.

There were no military bands, no massed crowds lining the streets, and none of the pomp and ceremony that will accompany her funeral today.

But the 30 minutes it took to transport her coffin across London was a prelude to Lady Thatcher`s last stand – her return to the Palace of Westminster, the battleground where she made her name.

It began with her coffin being placed into a standard hearse at a funeral directors` headquarters in North London and draped in a Union Jack.

Then five motorcycle outriders and a shadowing police helicopter escorted it through the capital`s busy weekday traffic to a splendid, temporary resting place in readiness for the big day.

In defiance of the anarchy threatened for her funeral, the journey was punctuated by simple ripples of applause, and even provoked a few cheers along the way

Cars came to a standstill as drivers realised this was no ordinary procession

Now, in a solitary coffin beneath the silent, vaulted emptiness of an ornate crypt, she was alone. For the next 18 hours, ahead of today`s procession to St Paul`s, she was scheduled to remain in the marble and stone surroundings of the chapel of St Mary Undercroft, deep beneath St Stephen`s Hall.

The chapel spans more than 700 years of history, and yesterday, 87 of them belonged to Margaret Hilda Thatcher.

Now the former prime minister – or `stateswoman (retired)` as her death certificate rather formally described her – lay just a few feet from the brass plaque commemorating the 1911 event.

She wasn`t alone for long though. After a private service attended by her close family – including son Mark and his children Michael, 24, and Amanda, 19, and daughter Carol with her boyfriend Marco Grass – friends and political associates, a stream of them filed by to pay their respects.

During the night the Speaker`s chaplain, the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, kept a vigil. Soon, friends and supporters from a nation Lady Thatcher helped to shape will be allowed to say goodbye for the last time.

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