If someone ever asks 'What's Britain like?' show them this photograph

There are few aspects of British culture that can be summed up as eloquently as queuing.

We queue everywhere – waiting to get on the train, in the supermarkets, street markets – even the escalators! And should some unfortunate soul violate this sacred, orderly responsibility, they are met with the full force of another quintessentially British practise: passive aggression.

Think tuts, eye rolls and frequent muttered words like ‘ridiculous’ and ‘atrocious’.

Andrew Last was walking by the O2 Arena when he noticed hundreds of people queuing for Ed Sheeran’s concert for his new album Division.

What surprised Andy was the patient, quiet way people got in line – even in the total absence of barriers.

Picture: People queuing for Ed Sheeran's concert in the O2 Andrew Last

Last also attended the concert, and thought Ed Sheeran was "great".

He told indy100:

I guess my thought was just ‘How wonderfully British, I'm sure the people of Reddit would get a kick out of this’ and they didn't disappoint.  Even as a Brit brought up on queuing this was still a masterclass considering the lack of barriers or staff to corral people.

I watched the queue for a couple of minutes and no-one stepped out of line, pushed in or cheated. 

It was beautiful.

It is indeed.

HT Evening Standard

More: These are the things that British people should never do while queuing

More: 10 things Americans have never understood about the British