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The gothic-style Westminster Abbey was inspired by the huge cathedrals that
were appearing in France at the time. The revolutionary flying buttresses (1)
made it possible to support the roof more than 100 feet above the ground
without needing massively thick walls. |
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Paid for by Henry VIII, The Lady Chapel (2) at the east end was a later
addition to the abbey. It has an astonishing fan-vaulted ceiling. At the west
end, the grey stone towers (3) by Nicholas Hawksmoor, were not completed until
1745. |
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The visitors' entrance is in the North trancept (4) under the rose window. Once
inside, the high altar can be seen directly ahead at the heart of the abbey,
and in front is the intricate Cosmati marble pavement. One of the Latin
inscriptions here states that the world will end after 19,683 years. |
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The windows in the nave (5) have been dedicated to famous people over the
years including engineers Brunel and Stevenson. All around are tombs and
memorials to the great, the good, and the not so good. Because the privilege of
an abbey burial depended on wealth, the impoverished poet Ben Jonson was buried
upright to save on the cost of floorspace. | |
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Westminster Abbey has not in fact been an abbey since Henry VIII and the
'dissolution of the monasteries', and although the name is still used, it is
more correct to call the building a church (cathedral-sized). |
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the royal occasions, coronations and burials that take place in the abbey show
that connection beween church and monarch survives. The Queen is head of the
church and at her coronation in 1953 she proclaimed herself 'defender of the
faith'. The coronations go way back to William the Conquerer who was crowned on
this site on Christmas day in 1066. |
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Outside the west door (6) is a circular memorial to victims of oppression,
violence and war, and just inside is the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. |
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One of the oddest burials in the abbey is that of Thomas Parr, a farm labourer
who won Royal patronage by claiming to be 152 years and 9 months old. His white
marble gravestone can be seen in the South trancept. |
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The Westminster Abbey website can be found
here. | |
