Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is a large Gothic Abbey Church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronations and burial site for the English and later, British monarchs.

Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have been in Westminster Abbey.

According to a tradition, a church was founded at the site in the seventh century. Construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III.

The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral.

Since 1560, the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England “Royal Peculiar,” a church responsible directly to the sovereign.

There have been 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100. It is also the burial site of more than 3,300 persons of prominence in British history.

West facade of the Westminster Abbey

Highlights of Westminster Abbey

King Edward’s Chair
The Cloister
Chapter House – built between about 1245 and 1253
The Royal Tombs – sixteen monarchs
Westminster Abbey Museum
Burial site of more than 3,300 persons, usually of prominence in British history
Lady Chapel – a memorial chapel to the airmen of the Royal Air Force who were killed in the Second World War
Poets’ Corner – poets, writers, and musicians were buried or memorialized around Chaucer’s burial site
Scientists Memorials – such as Isaac Newton, buried in 1727, Charles Darwin, buried in 1882, and Stephen Hawking, ashes interred in 2018
Politician’s Memorials – William Wilberforce who led the movement to abolish slavery in the United Kingdom and the Plantations, buried in 1833