Baroness Thatcher's funeral will be a "fitting tribute to a great prime minister respected around the world", Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
He urged those who took a different view of her legacy to "show respect".
Mr Cameron was speaking as crowds gathered outside St Paul's Cathedral to pay their respects to Britain's longest serving PM of modern times.
A security operation involving more than 4,000 police officers is under way ahead of the funeral.
Lady Thatcher's coffin will travel from Westminster and be taken in procession through central London for the funeral at St Paul's Cathedral at 11:00 BST.
Some 2,300 people, representing 170 countries, are expected to attend. The Queen will be among them.
'Sombre event'Scotland Yard said it was expecting some protests along the funeral route.
Rarely can a death have provoked such debate, such division, so much reflection. Today, though, is the moment when the British political establishment - the prime minister and other party leaders as well as all former occupants of Number 10 - comes together.
Messrs Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, Major, Blair and Brown will unite to pay their respects to and mark the passing of the woman who they all agree was the giant of her - of their - age. So too the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Big Ben will be silenced. Prime Minister's Questions has been cancelled.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the political arguments Margaret Thatcher once relished and provoked in death as well as in life may also be stilled - at least temporarily - as a family and friends mourn and a nation remembers a leader who had such a profound impact on our national life.
Lady Thatcher, who was Conservative Prime Minister from 1979 until 1990, died on 8 April, following a stroke, at the age of 87.
She has been accorded a ceremonial funeral with military honours, one step down from a state funeral.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cameron said it would have been seen as extraordinary not to commemorate her life.
"I think it will be quite a sombre event, but it is a fitting tribute to a great prime minister respected around the world, and I think other countries in the world would think Britain had got it completely wrong if we didn't mark this in a proper way,"
Asked about those who wanted to challenge his view of Lady Thatcher, Mr Cameron said: "Of course people have the right to disagree and take a different view.
"But when you're mourning the passing of an 87-year-old woman who was the first woman prime minister, who served for longer in the job than anyone for 150 years I think it's appropriate to show respect."
He said he had been "partly" inspired, as a young man, to join the Conservative Party by Baroness Thatcher, who he thought was a "very brave woman doing a tough job".
'Humble service'Police were out early on Wednesday with metal crowd control barriers in place along the main route in Westminster.
At the scene
Gerry Holt BBC News. St Paul's Cathedral
As night turned to day, crowds were already lining the barriers opposite St Paul's Cathedral, many with Union flags and all in good spirits.
Some have been here for more than 24 hours, with little more comfort than raincoats, fold-up chairs, flasks of hot tea and sandwiches.
John Loughrey, 58, from Wandsworth, south-west London, arrived at 09:30 BST on Tuesday.
"My main focus is to pay my final respects to Mrs Thatcher," who is an "icon of the 20th Century", he says.
Well wishers - and even police - outnumber protesters.
But Henry Page, 61, from Brighton is not deterred. He is protesting about the cost of the funeral.
"People might say my protest is inappropriate, undignified or vulgar but how undignified is it for David Cameron and Boris Johnson to be falling over themselves to make Margaret Thatcher's funeral more pompous?"
There has been some rain, but it has not dampened the atmosphere as guests begin to arrive to say a final farewell to the Iron Lady.
Baroness Thatcher's coffin will initially travel by hearse from the Palace of Westminster, where it has lain overnight, to the Church of St Clement Danes - the Central Church of the RAF - on the Strand.
It will then be transferred to a gun carriage to be drawn by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, who will lead it in procession to St Paul's.
The processional route will be lined by more than 700 armed services personnel. A gun salute will be fired from the Tower of London every minute while the procession is taking place.
The Dean of St Paul's said the funeral would be "relatively humble" in line with Lady Thatcher's wishes.
The Very Rev Dr David Ison said she had played a large part in planning the funeral over the past six years.
He said the "simple" service would be in contrast to the "pomp and ceremony" surrounding the transit of the coffin.
"Mrs Thatcher wanted something that was very simple and it is not at all triumphalist," he said.
"There is no eulogy, she is only mentioned once or twice in the service. It uses the book of common prayer, which is actually quite austere in places."
As well as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, all 32 members of the current cabinet will attend the service, along with more than 30 members of Lady Thatcher's cabinets from her time as prime minister.
How to watch or listen
- BBC One 09:15 BST - 12:15 BST: David Dimbleby hosts live coverage, starting as the coffin leaves Westminster to the end of service at St Paul's Cathedral. Coverage from the service at 11:00 BST will also be shown on BBC World News
- Radio 4 10:00 BST - 12:00 BST: Sian Williams and James Naughtie cover the procession and funeral
- Radio 5 Live 09:30 BST - 14:00 BST: Special outside broadcast with full coverage of the procession and funeral
- BBC News Channel 08:00 BST: Simon McCoy and Jane Hill host live coverage from Westminster and St Paul's
- BBC World Service 11:00 BST: World Service English and some language services will cover the funeral service live
- BBC News website 07:00 BST: Live coverage in text and video throughout the day
There will be more than 50 guests associated with the Falkland Islands, including veterans from the 1982 conflict with Argentina, but Argentina's ambassador to London, Alicia Castro, has declined an invitation to attend.
In total, two current heads of state, 11 serving prime ministers and 17 serving foreign ministers from around the world will attend.
Six police forces from outside London have sent specialist officers to help with escorting foreign dignitaries.
Various roads along the route were closed from 07:30 BST, and Transport for London has advised drivers to avoid Westminster and the City of London. The roads are expected to be re-opened as soon as possible following the funeral.
Hours before the funeral, people began to gather outside the cathedral. Estimates by BBC reporters ranged from about 70 to 300 positioned behind barriers before 07:00 BST.
There were union jacks on display, as well as flags from the US, Canada, Scotland, Poland and the Falkland Islands.
'Difficult balance'Wednesday's House of Commons sitting has been delayed until 14:30 BST, meaning the cancellation of Prime Minister's Questions, in order to allow MPs to attend - a move approved in a Commons vote on Tuesday.
The Metropolitan Police said it had been contacted by a small number of protesters to say they were planning action on the funeral route in protest at the impact of some of Lady Thatcher's policies while she was in power. Other protests are expected elsewhere.
Continue reading the main storyBBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said although Monday's bomb attack at the Boston Marathon was not believed to have led to any significant changes in security for the funeral, it was expected that the police and public would be more vigilant.
He said arguably the biggest headache for police was how to respond to any spontaneous protests along the funeral route or close to mourners.
Senior officers acknowledged they had a "difficult" balance to strike between allowing people to express their opinions and maintaining order, he added.
Police have powers to arrest those who use "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour", but Scotland Yard said it was not for the police to "uphold respect".
Lady Thatcher's union jack-draped coffin was placed in the Palace of Westminster's Chapel of St Mary Undercroft overnight on Tuesday.
A short service, led by the Dean of Westminster, was held for members of the family, senior parliamentarians, and staff from Parliament and Downing Street.
The House of Commons speaker's chaplain kept vigil in the chapel through the night.
The chimes of Big Ben will be silenced for the duration of Lady Thatcher's funeral. St Paul's has published a full funeral order of service.
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Westminster
The funeral procession will set out from the Palace of Westminster with Baroness Thatcher's body carried in a hearse for the first part of the journey. The coffin will be trasferred to a gun carriage at the church of St Clement Danes on the Strand.
Baroness Thatcher's body will lie overnight in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft which is found beneath St Stephen's Hall at the Palace of Westminster.
St Clement Danes
At the RAF Chapel at the church of St Clement Danes on the Strand, Baroness Thatcher's coffin will be borne in procession to St Paul's Cathedral on a gun carriage drawn by six horses of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
St Paul's Cathedral
There will be a Guard of Honour outside St Paul's as the coffin is transferred into the Cathedral by service personnel from regiments and ships closely associated with the Falklands campaign.
The ceremony in St Paul's Cathedral will be attended by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, family and friends of Baroness Thatcher, members of her cabinets and dignitaries from around the world.
Downing Street
The funeral passes Downing Street, which is found on the left of the route along Whitehall.
Baroness Thatcher was resident at Number 10 for more than ten years following her General Election victory in 1979.
Ceremonial procession
Once the procession leaves St Clement Danes, the route to St Paul's along Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill will be lined by more than 700 armed forces personnel from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, F Company Scots Guards, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, and the Royal Air Force.
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