westminster abbey tourism

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Westminster Abbey

Top choice in The West End

A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place of worship – the Abbey is still a working church and the stage on which history unfolds. Never a cathedral (the seat of a bishop), Westminster Abbey is what is called a "royal peculiar", administered by the Crown.

Inside Westminster Abbey

At the heart of the Abbey is the beautifully tiled sanctuary, the stage for coronations, royal weddings and funerals. Architect George Gilbert Scott designed the ornate High Altar in 1873. In front of the altar is the Cosmati Pavement, dating to 1268. It has intricate designs of small pieces of stone and glass inlaid into plain marble, which symbolize the universe at the end of time (an inscription claims the world will end after 19,683 years). At the entrance to the lovely Chapel of St John the Baptist is a sublime translucent alabaster  Virgin and Child , placed here in 1971.

The most sacred spot in the Abbey is the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, which lies behind the High Altar; access is restricted to guided tours to protect the fragile 13th-century flooring. King Edward, long considered a saint before he was canonised, was the founder of the Abbey, and the original building was consecrated a few weeks before his death in 1066. Henry III added a new shrine with Cosmati mosaics in the mid-12th century where the sick prayed for healing – and also chipped off a few souvenirs to take home.

The Quire (choir), a stunning space of gold, blue and red Victorian Gothic above a black-and-white chequerboard tiled floor, dates to the mid-19th century. It sits where the original choir for the monks' worship would have been but bears little resemblance to the original. Nowadays, the Quire is still used for singing, but its regular occupants are the Choir of Westminster Abbey – about 30 boys and 12 "lay vicars" (men) who sing the services and evensong.

Henry VII's magnificent Perpendicular Gothic–style Lady Chapel, with an impressive fan-vaulted ceiling and tall stained-glass windows is at the eastern end of the church.

Opened in 2018, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries are a museum and gallery space located in the medieval triforium, the arched gallery above the nave. Among its exhibits are the death masks and wax effigies of generations of royalty, armor and stained glass. Highlights are the graffiti-inscribed chair used for the coronation of Mary II, the beautifully illustrated manuscripts of the  Litlyngton Missal  from 1380 and the 13th-century Westminster Retable, England's oldest surviving altarpiece.

At the western end of the nave near the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, killed in France during WWI and laid to rest here in 1920, is St George's Chapel, which contains the rather ordinary-looking Coronation Chair, upon which every monarch since the early 14th century has been crowned (apart from joint monarchs Mary II and William III, who had their own chairs fashioned for the event in 1689).

Apart from the royal graves, keep an eye out for the many famous commoners interred here, especially in Poets' Corner, where you'll find the resting places of Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson, Samuel Johnson and Rudyard Kipling, as well as memorials to the other greats (William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters etc). Another set of illustrious stones is in Scientists' Corner near the north aisle of the nave, including the final resting places of Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and the ashes of Stephen Hawking.

The octagonal Chapter House dates from the 1250s and was where the monks would meet for daily prayer and their job assignments, before Henry VIII's suppression of the monasteries some three centuries later. To the right of the entrance to Chapter House is what's claimed to be the oldest door in Britain – it’s been there since the 1050s. Used as a treasury, the crypt-like Pyx Chamber dates from about 1070 and takes its name from boxes that held gold and silver to be tested for purity to make coins.

Much of the Abbey's architecture is from the 13th century, but it was founded much earlier, in AD 960. Henry III began work on the new Abbey building in 1245 but didn't complete it; the Gothic nave was finished under Richard II in 1388. The Lady Chapel was completed after 13 years of construction in 1516.

For centuries, the country's greatest have been interred here, including 17 monarchs from King Henry III (1272) to King George II (1760). Every monarch since William the Conqueror has been crowned here, with the exception of a couple of Eds who were either murdered (Edward V) or abdicated (Edward VIII) before the magic moment. It has also hosted 16 royal weddings, the most recent being that of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011.

Tickets and other practicalities

Sightseeing visitors must book their tickets in advance via the website . There is an additional charge for a multimedia guide. The Abbey is open for worship and individual prayer, and there are daily services. Check the website for the schedule . Evensong is 5pm on Tuesdays and 3pm on weekends.

Photography is allowed inside the church, but beware that there are restrictions on what you can photograph and when.

20 Dean's Yard. SW1

Get In Touch

020-7222 5152

https://www.westminster-abbey.org

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Visiting Westminster Abbey – Tickets, tours & FAQs

By: Author Tracy Collins

Posted on Last updated: July 30, 2023

• Everything you need to know to plan and book your visit to Westminster Abbey

Visiting Westminster Abbey: Tickets + Tours

Westminster abbey facts and figures, what to see at westminster abbey, getting to westminster abbey, opening hours, when is the best time to visit, services at westminster abbey.

• What other London attractions are located near Westminster Abbey?

Tips for planning your visit

Our top 3 picks: westminster tickets & tours.

#1 TOP PICK

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Westminster Abbey Tour with Diamond Jubilee Galleries

✔️ Skip the line entry ✔️ Exclusive access to the Diamond Jubilee Galleries ✔️ Small group tour with guide

Westminster Abbey Entrance Ticket ✔️ Book with Get Your Guide for free cancellation (up to 24 hours before) ✔️ Exchange at ticket office at the Abbey

Guided tour of Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament

✔️ Combined small group tour ✔️ Explore 2 top London destinations ✔️ Guide

Nearest Tube station – Westminster ( Circle, District and Jubilee lines )

How long to set aside for your visit? 1½ – 2 hours

• Westminster Abbey Entrance Ticket

Good to know – Entry to Westminster Abbey is included in the London Pass .

Combi tickets

• Westminster Walking Tour & Westminster Abbey Entry – Walking tour of the top 20 sights of Westminster (3 hours) and Westminster Abbey Entrance Ticket
• Skip the Line Westminster Abbey Tour with Diamond Jubilee Galleries – Skip the queues and dive into the history of England’s most important Gothic building, including the exclusive Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.

Guided tours

Prefer a guided tour of Westminster Abbey?

• Guided tour with early access to Westminster Abbey – Buy ticket
• Private 2 ½ hour tour of Westminster Abbey with skip-the-line and a London Blue Badge Guide. – Book here
• Skip-the-line Westminster Abbey small group tour with a guided visit & tour around the Houses of Parliament – Book here
• Verger-guided tours are available for £10 but can only be booked on arrival. Spaces are limited and are subject to change or cancellation at short notice.
• Small group tour including entry and tour of Westminster Abbey & tour of Big Ben(external) – Book here
• Walks Tours – London in a Day small group tour – includes Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and the Changing of the Guard.

Visiting Westminster Abbey

• Westminster Abbey was founded in the 10th century and is where every British monarch since 1066 has been crowned.
• The Coronation Chair (which has been used since the 14th century) can be seen in the abbey.
• It was constructed between 1245 and 1517 and is considered one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the world.
• The tombs of 17 monarchs and located in the Abbey.
• 16 royal weddings have taken place in the Abbey including the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
• Poets’ Corner contains memorials to many of England’s greatest writers, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Austen.
• The abbey’s famous “Oak Screen” was carved from a single oak tree and is considered one of the finest examples of medieval wood carving in England.
• Westminster Abbey was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
• The abbey’s bell tower, known as the Great West Tower, is the largest and highest of its kind in the UK. Its bell – known as “Great Tom” – is the largest bell in the country.
• Many famous people are buried in the Abbey including Sir Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, George Frederic Handel, Laurence Olivier and Charles Dickens.

If you are visiting Westminster Abbey as part of your London itinerary it is good to know a little before you visit so you don’t miss anything which is of particular interest.

• Poet’s Corner – located in the south transept more than 100 poets and writers are buried or have memorials here.
• Coronation Chair – is located in a specially-built enclosure within St George’s Chapel at the west end of the Nave. The chair has been used for the Coronation of British monarchs since 1399.
• Royal Tombs – at the eastern end of the church are the tombs of 30 kings and queens
• The Lady Chapel – is located at the Eastern end of the church and has a spectacular fan-vaulted ceiling
• The grave of the Unknown Warrior – on 11th November 1920 a body was brought from France to be buried here. The grave is located at the west end of the Nave.
• The Cloisters – is the area where the monks would have spent most of their time
• The Quire – is where the choir sit and is located in the centre of the Abbey.
• Pyx Chamber – is one of the oldest parts of the Abbey and was built around 1070 and is located off the East Chapter.
• Chapter House – is a meeting place where the monks gathered with the abbot the Chapter House is located in the East Cloister.
• The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries – Located 16 metres above the floor of the Abbey the galleries display treasures and tell the history of the Abbey. Additional charge – timed tickets .

• Tube:  The closest tube station is Westminster (Circle, District and Jubilee lines) which is less than a 5 minute walk to the Tower of London.
• Overground rail:  Victoria Station
• Bus routes: There are a number of bus routes that pass by the Abbey including 11, 24, 88, 148, 211
• Uber boat:  Westminster Pier
• Sightseeing buses: All major sightseeing buses pass by the Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is a church and as such is open for services on Sundays but not for sightseeing.

• Monday – Friday: 9:00 AM – 3.30 PM
• Saturday – 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries

• Monday – Friday: 10:00 AM – 3.00 PM
• Saturday – 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM

❗️ Note that due to the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6th 2023 the Abbey is closed from Tuesday 25 April (May’s dates have at this point not been released to the public)

• Westminster Abbey is one of the most popular tourist attractions in London so expect it to be busy!
• It can be especially crowded on Saturdays and during London’s peak season.
• If possible plan your visit for a weekday.
• Visit as early in the day as you can – be there before opening time or book a tour which allows early access or skip the line like this one .

There are regular services at Westminster Abbey which can be attended by the public and are free of charge.

• Morning Prayer
• Holy Communion
• Evening Prayer
• Sung Eucharist

Choral services are sung daily during term time by the Choir of Westminster Abbey. Sundays are the best time to visit to hear the choir as there are a number of services held. Alternatively, attend for Evensong during the week which is held around 5.00 PM.

Do check the official calendar when planning your visit.

What other London attractions are located near Westminster Abbey ?

• The Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster)
• Churchill War Rooms
• 10 Downing Street
• Buckingham Palace
• Personal photographs are allowed in the church but the use of a flash is forbidden. No pictures are allowed during services nor permitted at any time in the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor, St Faith’s Chapel or The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.
• Food and drink – Meals are served throughout the day at the Cellarium Café and Terrace. There is also a Kiosk that offers snacks, a light meal and drinks. A popular and affordable afternoon tea is served at the Cellarium Café and Terrace .
• A multimedia guide is included with the entry ticket – it is available in 14 languages. The app can be downloaded before you visit – Apple here , Android here or you can use a device supplied upon entry to the Abbey.
• The floor of the Abbey and steps are uneven so ensure that you are wearing sensible footwear.
• Bag checks are carried out before entry to the Abbey. There is no facility to check large bags or suitcases.
• There is no dress code but visitors are requested to dress respectfully.
• Visiting the Tower of London
• Visiting the London Eye
• Visiting Windsor Castle
• Visiting Kensington Palace
• Hampton Court Palace
• St Paul’s Cathedral

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The Ultimate Guide to Visiting Westminster Abbey

Westminster abbey ultimate guide.

Nowadays, Westminster Abbey is perhaps best known for being the venue of Kate Middleton and Prince William’s spectacular royal wedding (which was viewed by over two billion people all over the world); but Westminster Abbey is an important stop in any free tour of London and has a rich history that dates back nearly 1,000 years.

Sometime around 1050, Benedictine monks first travelled to the site where the Abbey sits today to set up a coronation church. The church was eventually expanded upon, and Westminster Abbey as we see it today was constructed between 1245 and 1272. Since then, it has been a key location for countless important events in English history, and some even believe it’s the most important Gothic church in England.

Westminster Abbey Highlights

Not only is Westminster Abbey still used as an active place of worship, it also serves as a fascinating historical museum, as well as the final resting place of some of the most notable people in England’s history.

Out of all the attractions to see inside the Abbey, no two are as popular as the Royal Tombs and Poet’s Corner sections, which contain the tombs of Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, as well as Charles Dickens, Robert Burns, T.S. Eliot, John Keats, and many, many more. Other notable tombs include those of Charles Darwin, and thousands of others ranging from famous prime ministers and politicians, to industrialists and even actors.

The oak door near the Abbey’s Chapter House is also an important attraction inside Westminster Abbey. It is said to be the only surviving Anglo-Saxon door in England, and can be dated all the way back to the time of Edward the Confessor (sometime between 1032 and 1064 AD).

There are also three gardens within Westminster Abbey (The Garth, The Little Cloister and College Garden and St. Catherine’s Garden). College Garden has been cultivated for over 900 years, and visitors can still see its original stone precinct wall today (at the far end on the eastern side), which was built in 1376.

Special Tips

Getting There

Visiting westminster abbey.

Visitors are kindly asked to dress in a “respectful manner” during their visit to the Abbey, especially if they wish to sit in on worship services like Morning Prayer, Evensong and the Eucharist. During the winter months the Abbey can get incredibly, so try to dress warmly and wear comfortable walking shoes (especially as you may be standing outside in a queue for up to one hour during the busy periods).

Visitors will not be allowed to enter the Abbey with large or bulky items (if you need to leave your luggage somewhere, there are facilities at both the Charing Cross and Victoria stations). Be aware that your bag may be searched by security personnel upon entry.

Photography, filming and the use of mobile phones inside the Abbey is strictly forbidden, however visitors will be allowed to take photographs and use their mobiles in the Cloisters and College Garden.

If you need some refreshments during your visit, the Cellarium Cafe and Terrace is open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., or Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Be prepared to wait in a queue for as long as an hour during holidays, weekends or afternoon hours. To avoid the queues it may be a good idea to go to Westminster Abbey at least 30 minutes before opening times.

Ticket prices and Opening Hours

Westminster Abbey is open from:

• 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
• 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays
• 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday from September to April
• 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday from May to August

Admission tickets cost:

• £20 for adults
• £17 for seniors and students
• £9 for children between the ages of six and 16
• £40 for families (two adults and one child) or £45 (two adults and two children).

Children under the age of five are allowed to enter for free as long as they are accompanied by an adult.

All visitors will be provided with a hand-held free audio guide when they enter through the North Door, so they can tour Westminster Abbey at their own pace and hear more about the various attractions inside the Abbey.

If you are interested in going on a tour inside Westminster Abbey, there are Verger-led tours which start at the North Door, and last for about 90 minutes. The tours visit the Shrine (which includes the tomb of Saint Edward the Confessor), the Royal Tombs, Poet’s Corner, the Cloisters and the Nave.

The tours cost £5 per person (in addition to the entrance charge). If you want to go on a tour it is highly recommended that you arrive at the Abbey extra early, as the tours are limited to 20 people at a time.

The tours are scheduled at:

• 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays (from April to September)
• 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Saturdays (April to September)
• 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays (from October to March)
• 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m. on Saturdays (October to March)

The Abbey is only open for worship on Sundays, as well as religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. On these days, visitors are welcome to attend services for free, but will not be allowed to roam around the Abbey on their own. Visitors will also be asked to provide donations to the Abbey, and all proceeds will go towards nominated organizations and charities. To view the scheduled service times on Sundays or religious holidays, visit the Abbey’s official website.

If you want to visit Westminster Abbey, you might want to take a look at the list of free tours of London that run daily.

Free Tours in Your Language

Northern Europe and the British Isles

A Smithsonian magazine special report

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History | April/May 2023

The Grand History of Westminster Abbey

The church’s many chambers and crypts hold the story of Britain’s past, present and future

By Peter Ross

Photographs by Jooney Woodward

First light in London. At the top of Westminster Abbey’s northwest tower, Lee Robinson welcomes a new morning in a 1,000-year-old history by performing one of the building’s quieter rituals.

“We do this at 7 in the morning, even in winter,” he says. “When the sun’s starting to rise you get a spectacular view.”

He runs the flag up the pole—the abbey’s coat of arms, a golden cross against bright blue. Flying above the great city, it seems to be in conversation with its fellows on the Houses of Parliament, the Supreme Court and Buckingham Palace, each of which Robinson points out from atop the tower. The flags of London speak a symbolic language. They announce whether the monarch is at home, which head of state is visiting the capital, whether the nation is mourning some death or disaster. Today, all is well, or at least it seems so from 225 feet and 4 inches up. The old stone tower gleams white in the sun as the sirens rise from the street.

Robinson, an amiable man in his mid-50s, is a Westminster Abbey beadle. It is an archaic word—most people, hearing his job title, might expect a frock coat and cocked hat—but it simply means that he is part of the security team. Within the abbey are buried thousands of illustrious dead: royals, nobles, writers, musicians, scientists, politicians—the great Britons of Great Britain. But it is the living, the abbey’s 275 staff, who look after the building for present and future generations.

How you see Westminster Abbey will depend upon who you are. To the beadles, this is a workplace; to the tourist, an Instagrammable spectacle; to the pilgrim, a place of prayer. It is a site of royal power and  a major tourist attraction, a historic monument  and a living church, in which all are welcome to worship. On May 6, it will fulfill its vocation—the coronation of a king. Charles III will be the 40th monarch to be crowned there, the first being William the Conqueror on Christmas Day, 1066.

Thinking too deeply about such things can bring on a sort of vertigo, a feeling of centuries dropping away. Those who work here say that once they walk into the building their temporal perspective shifts. There is human time and there is abbey time. “You leave the here and now behind and go into another dimension,” is how one staff member puts it.

Westminster Abbey was already ancient when New York was New Amsterdam; indeed, it is older than Amsterdam itself. It is much older than Germany, much older than Italy, a little older than France, and not much younger than England. It was founded around 960 as a Benedictine monastery on what was then a marshy delta, Thorney Island, formed where two streams of the Tyburn met the river Thames. There is now no sign that you are standing on an island, the Tyburn having long since been culverted and the land developed.

Edward the Confessor, the Anglo-Saxon king who was later made a saint, had a Romanesque church constructed on the site, beside his palace. It was consecrated on December 28, 1065, but the king was too ill to attend, died a few days later and was buried in the abbey. His successor, Harold Godwinson, ruled for nine months until his defeat and death at the Battle of Hastings. The Norman victor, William the Conqueror, made sure to have his coronation in the abbey, seeking the legitimacy of association with Edward. Ever since, the abbey’s fame and meaning have derived from these twin roles as royal burial place and crowning place, a church of bones and thrones.

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This article is a selection from the April/May 2023 issue of Smithsonian magazine

Few traces of Edward the Confessor's abbey remain, but one can be found in a dim passageway between the east cloister and the chapter house. There are always a few tourists gathered round, taking pictures, chuckling as they translate the information panel into their own tongues.

“A porta mais antiga do Reino Unido!” “La plus vieille porte du Royaume-Uni!” “La puerta más antigua de Gran Bretaña!”

Britain’s oldest door, the sign says. It looks as rough and solid as you would want. Five oak planks, iron-bound, it was made in the 1050s for a church that is no longer there and repurposed for the present building. The wood from which it was built began to grow in Essex when England was not yet England, when it was still a patchwork of kingdoms. There is something comic about it, a touch of Monty Python —hence the affectionate laughter of visitors—but it is also a ghost and a portal into the past.

The abbey we see now is largely the creation of Henry III, who in the 13th century had Edward’s church demolished and a new one built in the Gothic style. This spans 530 feet from the Great West Door to the far end of the Lady Chapel. Its interior covers 32,000 square feet. The grounds include ancient cloisters, homes of clergy and senior staff, and three gardens. The towers were completed in the mid-18th century; a beadle rising in the morning to raise the flag must first climb 315 steps.

But figures and dates cannot convey what it is like to wander within, amid the almost psychedelic geometry of vault and arch, where each footstep seems to bring you to another chapel and tomb. The abbey is dramatic in two senses. First, aesthetic: The “architectural equivalent to Shakespeare at his most swaggering,” wrote the critic Ian Nairn. Then there is the drama contained inside: the strut and fret of history’s great men and women who have passed across this stage.

If you have seen or thought about Westminster Abbey lately, it will most likely have been in connection with the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II , held there on September 19, 2022, before her coffin was borne by hearse to Windsor Castle. The ceremony, broadcast to a global audience, including 29.2 million viewers in the United Kingdom and 11.4 million viewers in the United States, showed the abbey in all its somber magnificence. The great vault of the nave. The gold of the high altar. The black and white marble of the quire floor, seen from a camera so high above that it gave the impression of a God’s-eye view. Abbey staff had been planning the funeral for more than ten years.

“We all knew that we would one day have to take this service,” the Very Reverend David Hoyle told me. “But we were all really startled when the moment came.”

Hoyle is in his mid-60s, with short white hair and dark-framed spectacles. He is the dean of Westminster, the abbey’s most senior priest. I had seen him on television in rich, colorful vestments, but here, in the book-lined study of the Deanery, his home within the abbey grounds, he was wearing a black shirt and white collar, and seemed more academic than priest.

The dean had led the queen’s funeral service. His expression, for those of us watching, was hard to read, and I wondered what had been going through his mind.

As he sat near the altar, he recalled, he was highly conscious that here in front of him was the body of Her Majesty, and there behind him were the tombs and remains of many of her royal predecessors going all the way back to Edward the Confessor nearly 1,000 years earlier. This is the proper place, he thought, to carry out the ritual that would stitch Elizabeth II into the tapestry of history.

“But the one moment that really took me by surprise,” he continued, “was at the very end of the service, when I had to step down and walk past the coffin. That was a bit of a hammer-blow. I thought, ‘I will never see you again.’ I didn’t know her well, but I did see the queen more than a lot of people do, and I felt a great affection for her. That was a very personal moment.”

It is this confluence of scales, human and historic, that gives the abbey its particular atmosphere. How is a building like this kept alive? By people. By the dutiful care of those who work there. The clergy who hold services from morning till evening, and the cleaners who dust the tombs of monarchs who are now dust. The gardeners who tend this peaceful oasis in central London. The curators, conservators, choristers. The worshipers and visitors who bring money, but also—perhaps as importantly—loving attention. “I have to be seen to be believed,” the queen famously remarked. This is also true of Westminster Abbey, a building that is powerful and meaningful to the extent that it impresses the public gaze. It’s all very well being awesome, but you do need people to awe.

One morning, the sun shining bright through stained glass, I walked up the nave, through the quire and past the high altar, then climbed a few wooden stairs into St. Edward the Confessor’s Chapel, where I met the woman who cleans the tombs. Hannah Mills is in her mid-30s. She was wearing a headlamp to help her see dust and cobwebs on the gilt-bronze effigy of Richard II that, since the end of the 14th century, has lain upon his grave. These she removed with a goat-hair brush and a small vacuum cleaner slung around one shoulder. Dust is not just an aesthetic issue. It attracts moisture, which can lead to corrosion. However, the act of dusting can itself be damaging, and therefore the small team of “conservation housekeepers” go easy with their brushes, use no cleaning products and keep gentleness as their watchword. Mills pointed out the curls of the king’s hair, and the stags and sunbeams that decorate his robe—“the finest examples of craft in the abbey,” she said. “You can lose yourself in the patterns and designs.”

Edward the Confessor’s Chapel has his shrine at its center. Around this are the tombs of several kings and queens. Mills dusts in here once a week. She begins with Richard II before moving on to Edward III (“He’s got a lovely beard”), Philippa of Hainault, Eleanor of Castile and Henry III. If she has time, she will attend to Henry V. He is made of wood, heavily varnished, so can be gone over with a cloth. About once a year she will go up a ladder for Anne of Bohemia, the first wife of Richard II, who died of plague in 1394 and is rather hard to reach.

One needn’t be a monarchist or a Christian to sense what the dean calls a “spiritual electricity” inside the Confessor’s chapel and elsewhere in the abbey. This is felt most readily at moments of quiet. Best of all is morning worship, as I found when I attended Holy Communion at 8 a.m. in St. Faith’s, a narrow chapel off the south transept. There were only a dozen of us in the congregation. One was a tall young man wearing a crown who, I had heard, believed himself to be King Richard I. In that very English way, everyone pretended not to notice. The priest got on with the service. Candles flickered on the altar, wafers and wine were taken into the body, and it was pleasant to think that in the heart of the 21st-century city this ancient ritual remained part of the pulse.

It was midafternoon. The abbey had closed to the public. A distinguished visitor was expected. Police and sniffer dogs had made their search, and now senior clergy lined up in scarlet cassocks, a welcoming party, while the dean, also in red, stood outside the western entrance to greet his guest. A shriek of whistles announced that the motorcade was on its way. Then the sleek black car pulled up and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, dressed in a black coat, stepped out. He was in London as part of the first state visit hosted by King Charles. Such visits routinely include a tour of Westminster Abbey. U.S. President Donald Trump observed the tradition, as did Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon before him.

The abbey can thus be seen as part of the soft power of the British state. Yet despite this, it is entirely independent and receives no funding from the Crown, the government or the Church of England. Closed for stretches of 2020 and 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and deprived of overseas tourist income, at one point the abbey was losing a million pounds a month; staff numbers were reduced by more than a fifth. Even with the easing of lockdown restrictions, visits remained significantly down. Things only improved in spring of 2022, and, following the queen’s funeral, numbers are back up to around pre-pandemic levels. “It’s not a solution I would ever have wished for,” Hoyle told me. Still, his relief was palpable. “I can begin to look forward to a day when the abbey is no longer in crisis.”

Having shaken hands with a line of priests, Ramaphosa stood at the foot of a black slab set into the floor: the grave of the Unknown Warrior. The anonymous body interred here was brought in November 1920 from a battlefield in France. Now a military attaché handed Ramaphosa a floral wreath, which he laid on the dark marble. The Unknown Warrior is intended to stand for those who fell “For God, for king and country,” as the inscription has it, but has come to represent all the fallen, of whatever side, and the human tragedy of war.

Here, in the abbey, the dead far outnumber the living. There is capacity for 2,000 visitors, but there are approximately 3,300 known burials and many more from early times that were unrecorded. “It is, indeed, the empire of death,” wrote Washington Irving, “his great shadowy palace where he sits in state mocking at the relics of human glory and spreading dust and forgetfulness on the monuments of princes.”

And not only princes. To walk in the abbey is to walk upon the graves of public figures from across the centuries. Slabs are everywhere set into the floor, often in clusters of disciplines. Scientists are grouped at the far end of the nave, by the north side of the choir screen. Isaac Newton died in 1727 and was buried there. His Latin epitaph reads, “Hic depositum est quod mortale fuit”—Here lies what was mortal of—“Isaaci Newtoni.” The ashes of the physicist Stephen Hawking were, in 2018, interred just a few steps away, beneath a slab carved with the English translation of Newton’s inscription, the two men having been Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge 300 years apart. How remarkable that those whose minds probed the farthest corners of the universe should rest in the same few feet of earth. What goes up must come down, as Newton surely knew.

Poets’ Corner, in the south transept, is famous as the burial place of writers. Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, established the trend, though the best-known grave is that of Charles Dickens. He did not want to be there. His preference had been to be buried without fuss in a country churchyard near his home in Kent, but a rousing editorial in the London Times —“very few are more worthy than Charles Dickens of such a home”—led his family to seek a place in Westminster Abbey. He was buried on June 14, 1870. The grave, left open for three days, filled with flowers as the public paid their respects. “I never knew an author’s death to cause such general mourning,” wrote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from Cambridge, Massachusetts. “It is no exaggeration to say that this whole country is stricken with grief.”

The burials in the abbey span so great a period of time that strange associations develop. Henry V is an English hero on account of his victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415. His eve-of-battle speech, as imagined by Shakespeare—“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”—was the emotional centerpiece of Laurence Olivier’s 1944 film of the play. The ashes of Olivier were interred in the abbey in 1991; at the memorial service, a recording of the famous speech was played, filling the church with the actor’s glorious bellicosity and echoing over the tomb of King Henry, whose valor inspired the words that now rattled his bones.

Shakespeare himself was not buried in the abbey. His grave is in his native Stratford-upon-Avon. But his friend and rival Ben Jonson is here. So poor was the dramatist at the time of his death that he was buried upright, as he could not afford the floor space. Different versions of the story state that the cost was met by either King Charles I or the dean of Westminster. The small gray marker, on which Jonson’s name is misspelled, is shuffled over, unnoticed, by crowds lining up for evensong. I was shown the spot by a marshal in a red cloak. He introduced himself as Howard and said, “What I love about this place is that there are pockets of magic everywhere.”

Where to find other pockets? Try the abbey gardens. The largest of these, College Garden, goes back to the abbey’s earliest days. Here the Benedictines grew vegetables, kept orchards for apples and plums, and cultivated plants essential for nutrition and medicine. There have been no monks at Westminster since the mid-16th century. These days, College Garden is a peaceful sanctuary in the busiest part of the capital, enclosed by a 14th-century wall. It is open to abbey visitors but not well known. “My primary objective in life is to try and make people realize how important this garden is,” said Jan Pancheri, the abbey’s head gardener, as we took a walk one cold morning. She showed me the herb garden that she has created in homage to the monastic past: rue and rosemary, marjoram and mint, hyssop and sweet cicely. She has a strong feeling, especially in winter, for the presence of the brethren who once tended this ground; when, in the course of their work, she and the other gardeners uncover what they take to be the bones of monks, they dig them back into the earth.

The garden itself feels like a presence to her, a kind of consciousness. She began working here in 1999, not long after losing both of her parents, and the gardens have been a comfort. “When I come to work in the morning, it’s like a pair of green arms coming to welcome you,” she said.

Far above the gardens, in an upper part of the abbey known as the triforium, is another pocket—the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries. Here are objects of powerful strangeness: the funeral effigies of nobles and royals. The early ones were made from wood, and later from wax. They make an impression very different from the durable bronze or stone effigies on the tombs in the church below, and they served a different purpose. Beginning in the 14th century, immediately following the death of a royal, a carved likeness of the late king or queen was dressed in a wig and finery and processed on top of their coffin through the streets of London to the church. Until the early 19th century these figures were sometimes left to lie or stand by the tomb of the person they represented. Twenty have survived: 11 of wax, 8 of wood, 1 of plaster. Vanessa Simeoni, the head conservator, told me that if the abbey suffered a fire like the one that engulfed Notre-Dame in 2019, these effigies are what she would rush to save: “They are so rare and incredible.”

Most of these people are buried downstairs, but up here they enjoy a curious afterlife. The earliest figures, naked and missing limbs, some suffering gouges or pocked with what look like the holes of beetle larvae, bring to mind eerie tales of automata or the leathery agonies of bog bodies. The later effigies, dressed in silk and velvet, have such an unsettling fairy-tale quality that one finds oneself grateful for comic touches. Frances Stuart, the Duchess of Richmond, commissioned her effigy in her will. It is exhibited alongside her beloved parrot, an African grey. Stuart died in 1702, the bird soon afterward, and while the noblewoman is made of wax, her pet is stuffed; X-rays have shown that its skeleton is complete. Virginia Woolf, in 1928, seemed much taken with this parrot and thought it an ironical comment on the narcissism of its owner, who, she wrote, “was beautiful once and had lovers beyond belief.”

“And here it is,” said the dean.

Hoyle and I were standing by the Coronation Chair. This is where monarchs are crowned. It was made in 1300. Once it would have been golden, but now much of the wood is exposed, and it is badly carved with graffiti from the 18th and 19th centuries. This vandalism was carried out by boys from Westminster School and others who had access. The chair was not always regarded as an almost sacred relic. Vergers used to charge visitors a fee to allow them to sit in it. Some, clearly, found it an easeful spot. “P. Abbott slept in this chair 5-6 July 1800” is carved into the seat.

Today the chair is kept secure behind glass near the Great West Door, but for the coronation it will be brought to the heart of the abbey and placed on the Cosmati Pavement—the name by which the area of swirling, kaleidoscopic flooring in front of the high altar is known. The ancient pavement is 24 feet and 10 inches square and made from 90,000 pieces of glass and hand-cut stone, much of it recycled from Roman mosaics. It features Latin inscriptions that calculate the date of the end of the world. Chair and pavement were made within 30 years of each other, but it has been a long time since they touched. Badly damaged, the pavement was covered with carpet in the 19th century. In recent years, though, it has been conserved and restored. The Cosmati has a circle of pink onyx at its center, resembling a planet seen from space, and it is likely that during the forthcoming ceremony the chair will stand on or near this. It will be a bringing together of objects of spiritual and temporal power: the stone, the chair, the king, the crown.

At 73, on the death of his mother, Charles became the oldest person to accede to the British throne. He was a child when he saw her crowned. Now it is his turn. This coronation will take place in a very different nation from 1953. Then: a young woman becoming queen in an atmosphere of postwar renewal and optimism. Now: an old man inheriting a kingdom that feels disunited, weary and worn, its gilding coming off.

It will, no doubt, still be a spectacular occasion. The abbey will look magnificent. The crowds outside will cheer. Viewers at home will watch the coverage with whatever mixture of voyeurism, skepticism and patriotism reflects their attitude. But can it really be a unifying event? Britain, like America, has its culture wars, its partisan divides. Shared national institutions—the church and monarchy among them—no longer feel quite so shared.

“This is the gathering place for the nation and the Commonwealth,” Hoyle had told me as we sat in his Deanery. “But the abbey as a convening space is a much more complicated thing than it used to be. We have a weaponized political discourse at the moment. People define themselves largely by their associations and their dislikes. If you’re the dean of Westminster Abbey and your job is to invite people into this place to find their place in the nation’s long story, that’s getting really difficult.”

Evensong, the day’s final service, is always busy. The choristers stand in their stalls wearing white surplices over red cassocks and white ruffs. None of the boys is older than 13, yet they do not seem like children. They are vessels for sound. There is so much that is solid in the abbey: the tombs, the architecture, the effigies of wax and wood. But the music, heard every day here for centuries, cannot be touched or held. It happens and then it is gone, but somehow it gets into the stones.

The boys are boarders at the choir school. There are, on average, eight choral services a week, plus daily rehearsals. Now the boys sing the Magnificat, the song of Mary, their voices rising to the ribs of the vault. Evensong is an opportunity, whether you are a believer or not, to experience the numinous. A chance to leave behind for a time the quarrels and weary cares of the present.

The sky grows dark behind the windows, and I think of Daisy McDonnell, a marshal who had shown me around earlier. She is only 29. A little girl when Princess Diana had her funeral here, a teenager when Prince William and Kate Middleton got married, not yet 30 when the queen died, but she is already part of abbey time, caught up in that grand sweep. “The abbey holds so much history, and continues to make history,” she had said, shrugging. “It’s just what we do.”

There is an intense feeling here of compressed narrative and time. An oak is axed in an Essex forest. It is made into a door for a church, then another church. Monks and priests pass through; monarchs pass by and pass on. The church is on an island, then it is not. It is part of a great city. It survives a Great Fire. Enemy aircraft fly overhead and drop their bombs. London is in flames again, but it survives, as it did centuries before. Elizabeth II is crowned, mourned, and the crown passes on. Then, as now, the people who work here are custodians. They inherit this place in each generation and will bequeath their duties to whomever comes next. The story of Westminster Abbey began with a felled oak. It has not ended yet.

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Peter Ross' new book is A Tomb With a View: The Stories and Glories of Britain's Graveyards .

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Jooney Woodward, a former archivist at  Vogue , is an award-winning portrait photographer based in London.

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July 17, 2015

11 Facts About Westminster Abbey in London

One of the more popular landmarks to tour in London is Westminster Abbey.  In fact, each year, over 1 million visitors explore this magnificent church with over 1000 years of heritage, taking in all the building’s rich history on their own or with a qualified Blue Badge Tou rist Guide .  Below we highlight eleven facts about Westminster Abbey.

1.  Westminster Abbey was formed by Benedictine monks during “the middle of the tenth century, establishing a tradition of daily worship which continues to this day.”  Specifically, the first Westminster Abbey was established in 960.

2.  The current Westminster Abbey was started by Henry III in 1245 and is “one of the most important Gothic buildings in the country, with the medieval shrine of an Anglo-Saxon saint still at its heart.”

3.  The official name for Westminster Abbey is the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster.   However, the abbey doesn’t operate like a regular church reporting to the hierarchy within the Church of England. Around 1560, the abbey was designated with a special “Royal Peculiar” – which is a church responsible directly to the Sovereign.

4.  Westminster Abbey has been the coronation church for the British Monarch since 1066.  In fact, 39 coronations have taken place at Westminster Abbey with the most recent on 2 June 1953.  This coronation was for our current and soon to be the longest-serving monarch –  her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who is the eldest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

5.  Westminster Abbey’s ten bells were overhauled in 1971 and “are rung for major church festivals, saints’ days, Royal and Abbey anniversaries, civic events and for special services.”

6. Seventeen royal weddings have taken place at Westminster Abbey with the most recent on 29 April 2011.  This was the royal wedding of Prince William of Wales now Duke of Cambridge, who is the eldest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales.   He married Miss Catherine Middleton now Duchess of Cambridge.

7.   During the Second World War, about “60,000 sandbags were used to protect immoveable royal and medieval tombs. The Coronation Chair was sent for safety to Gloucester Cathedral and the Coronation Stone was buried secretly within the Abbey.”

8.  Over 3,300 people have been buried or commemorated at Westminster Abbey.  This includes seventeen British monarchs including King Henry V and all the Tudors except for Henry VIII.  Other notable people buried at Westminster Abbey include Isaac Newton, Edward the Confessor and Charles Dickens.

9.  The architecture within Westminster Abbey is beyond spectacular, and one of the most magnificent areas is the Henry VII Chapel commonly referred to as the Lady chapel.   The pendant fan vault ceiling is beyond beautiful and definitely must be seen in person.

10.  The beautiful organ at Westminster Abbey was made by Harrison and Harrison and “installed for the Coronation of King George VI in 1937. With four manuals and 84 speaking stops, it incorporated some of the pipework from the previous five-manual instrument, built by William Hill in 1848.”

11.  Regular Worship does take place at Westminster Abbey.   In fact, each “Sunday five separate sermons are delivered at Westminster Abbey or St Margaret’s. The Abbey’s clergy and guest preachers address current theological issues, religion and world events, and the interpretation of biblical texts.”

So are you intrigued enough to visit Westminster Abbey now a UNESCO World Heritage Site on your next visit to London?    If yes, know that the best time to visit Westminster Abbey during the week is early in the morning before the crowds descend.   Also, because there is so much history at Westminster Abbey, we recommend taking a tour with a qualified and knowledgeable Blue Badge Tourist Guide  (find one using our GuideMatch  service).  Yes, we’re somewhat biased, but unlike other historical venues across London, there really is a lot to take in and you want to be sure not to miss any of the hidden gems.

Ursula Petula Barzey is a Digital Marketing Consultant who enjoys all that London has to offer to its residents as well as visitors from all across the globe.

3 responses to “11 Facts About Westminster Abbey in London”

It was built by and stolen from Catholics. Give it back to the Catholic Church.

oh its the worlds Abbey now…I’m Catholic and could not care less who “claims” it. Besides we have Michelangelo and the Pia-ta and the Vatican and Sistine Chapel full to the brim with priceless relics of art and historical matter. The Catholic Church was 1000 years old when Westminster Abbey came to exist…..

Visited there in 1975. i lived in Germany about three years and got around pretty good. Westminster Abbey was head over heels THE most impressive historical site I have visited. And I

loved the British Museum….those two sites make it very clear that England is not just another country, but a pillar in the very foundation of civilized man. And their friendly folks too! 🙂

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