Small ceremony held for Thatcher

The coffin of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher left London's Westminster Palace, where it had laid overnight, for a small service at St Clement Dane ahead of a funeral to be attended by 2,500 guests at St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday.

As the hearse drove past the prime minister' office in Downing Street mourner's lining the streets clapped.

The flowers on top of the coffin bore a message from her children Carol and Mark that read: "Beloved mother - always in our hearts".

Thatcher, who governed Britain from 1979 to 1990, died on April 8 after suffering a stroke.