PilgrimstaysWestminster Abbey is the coronation church of England — every English and British monarch since William the Conqueror in 1066 has been crowned here, with two exceptions. It is also the burial place of seventeen monarchs, and of the greatest names in British history: Newton, Darwin, Dickens, Hardy, Kipling, Handel, and Laurence Olivier among hundreds of others. The Poets' Corner, the Science section of the nave floor, and the nave itself constitute a secular and sacred pantheon unmatched in the English-speaking world. The present Gothic structure was begun by Henry III in 1245 and has been built and modified continuously since. The west towers, a familiar element of the London skyline, were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in 1745. The Henry VII Lady Chapel at the east end, with its astonishing fan-vaulted ceiling, is considered one of the most beautiful rooms in England. The Coronation Chair, made in 1300, still stands in the Confessor's Chapel and has been used at every coronation since Edward II. Westminster Abbey is also a living worshipping community: an active collegiate church with 36 clergy and choral scholars. The daily choral services — Matins and Evensong — maintain a musical tradition stretching back to the Benedictine monks who occupied the site from the 10th century until the Dissolution. For pilgrims, the Abbey is both a place of extraordinary history and a living act of daily Anglican worship.
Coronation church since William the Conqueror in 1066 — 39 coronations have taken place here Burial place of 17 monarchs and hundreds of the greatest names in British cultural and intellectual history The Henry VII Lady Chapel fan vault is considered one of the most beautiful architectural spaces in England The Coronation Chair, made in 1300, has been used at every coronation since 1308
Over 2 million visitors per year — one of the most visited buildings in the United Kingdom
South transept The burial and memorial ground of English literature: Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, Johnson, Dickens, Hardy, Kipling, T.S. Eliot, and dozens more. To walk across the flagstones here, reading name after name of the writers who made English what it is, is a form of literary pilgrimage.
East end The most beautiful room in the Abbey, built 1503-19.
hangs over the stalls of the Knights of the Bath. The perpendicular Gothic windows contain 16th-century stained glass. Henry VII and Elizabeth of York are buried here.
Confessor's Chapel The oak chair made in 1300 for Edward I, used at every coronation since Edward II in 1308. Charles III was crowned on it in May 2023. The dents, graffiti, and general wear of seven centuries of history make it the most historically charged piece of furniture in Britain.
a British soldier buried in 1920 with earth from the Western Front — remains the most visited grave in the world.
From Parliament Square [OUTDOOR] The Hawksmoor towers (1745), rising above the Gothic facade, form one of London's defining skyline compositions alongside the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The view of the Abbey from Parliament Square, across the green, at dusk is the most quintessentially English scene in the city.
In 1920, an unidentified British soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey with earth from the battlefields of France and Belgium. No one knows who he is. He is buried among kings. His grave is the most visited in the world. This is the most important thing Westminster Abbey has ever done: it declared, with a burial, that the unknown man in the mud matters as much as the crowned king on the throne. That is a theological statement as much as a political one.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Read in full on Bible Gateway →Westminster Abbey is the coronation church of England — every English and British monarch since William the Conqueror in 1066 has been crowned here, with two exceptions. It is also the burial place of seventeen monarchs, and of the greatest names in British history: Newton, Darwin, Dickens, Hardy, Kipling, Handel and Laurence Olivier among hundreds of others. Poets’ Corner, the Science section of the nave floor, and the nave itself constitute a secular and sacred pantheon unmatched in the English-speaking world.
The present Gothic structure was begun by Henry III in 1245 and has been built and modified continuously since. The west towers, a familiar element of the London skyline, were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in 1745. The Henry VII Lady Chapel at the east end, with its astonishing fan-vaulted ceiling, is considered one of the most beautiful rooms in England. The Coronation Chair, made in 1300, still stands in the Confessor’s Chapel and has been used at every coronation since Edward II.
Westminster Abbey is also a living worshipping community: an active collegiate church with 36 clergy and choral scholars. The daily choral services — Matins and Evensong — maintain a musical tradition stretching back to the Benedictine monks who occupied the site from the 10th century until the Dissolution. For pilgrims, the Abbey is both a place of extraordinary history and a living act of daily Anglican worship.
