Very few buildings are as iconic on the London skyline than Westminster Abbey and it is a fantastic structure to admire and visit. The origins of the abbey are generally believed to date to around 959 when St Dunstan and King Edgar installed a community of Benedictine monks on the site and dedicated it to Saint Peter, at that time its location was on an island in the middle of the River Thames called Thorn Ey. There are no surviving remnants of this building but pottery and foundations have been found. Some folklore suggests a church was founded here by the Saxon King of Essex Sæberht, an early 7th century king who was the first English Saxon King to convert to Christianity from paganism. Other sources claimed that it was founded by the perhaps fictional 2nd century British ‘King’ Lucius, who became widely known when the Venerable Bede recorded his story in the 8th century and is who was widely claimed to have introduced Christianity into Britain.
In the 1040s King Edward (later St Edward the Confessor) re-endowed and greatly enlarged the pre-existing monastery. Unfortunately, by the time the new church was consecrated on 28th December 1065 Edward was too ill to attend and died a few days later, his remains entombed in front of the High Altar. The only traces of this monastery can be seen in the massive supporting columns of the undercroft and the Pyx Chamber in the cloisters. In 1066 the Abbey became the site of its first coronation, that of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day 1066. It has been the site of every English coronation since 1066 to the present day (with the brief exception of Edward V and Edward VIII).
Edward’s Abbey continued to be the main structure for two centuries until the mid 13th century when King Henry III decided to rebuild it in the then new Gothic style. It was consecrated on 13th October 1269. Construction of the nave was not completed by the time of Henry’s death in 1272 so the original structure stood attached to the new Gothic structure for years. The next major addition to the cathedral was the Lady’s Chapel with its spectacular fan-vaulted roof built by Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, and consecrated in 1516. The monastery at Westminster was dissolved in 1549 but Henry VIII decreed it to be a cathedral church, however by 1556 Mary I restored the Benedictine monastery. Queen Elizabeth I re-founded the abbey as a Collegiate Church exempt from the jurisdiction of bishops and archbishops with the Sovereign as its direct ruler. It was a further two centuries until the western towers, which had been unfinished since medieval times, were completed to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1745 and Westminster took on the final form we see to this day.
Westminster is home to a huge number of burials and tombs with 18 monarchs buried within its walls, such as Edward the Confessor, Richard II, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry II and Elizabeth I to name just a few. Many notable politicians are also interred such as Pitt the Elder, Pitt the Younger and William Gladstone. The body, minus the head, of Oliver Cromwell is buried at Westminster, his head being in buried in Cambridge! The tomb of Isaac Newton is surrounded by other famous scientists such as Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. Poet’s Corner is an area that both pays homage to poets and writers of note that are buried elsewhere however some are interred there, such as Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Rudyard Kipling. The most visited burial is perhaps the Unknown Warrior, this was dedicated to a soldier who died in World War 1 and now many cathedrals and countries have tombs for the Unknown Soldier or Warrior but this was the first. It came about as a response to the level of death and destruction during the War and is in fact the only stone that is forbidden to walk on in the abbey. Westminster Abbey has over 1 million visitors a year but thankfully I visited in early January last year when it was a lot quieter and far easier to navigate.
GPS: 51.49941, -0.12745