Please read and enjoy our article and watch your FREE LONDON MUSIC VIDEO at the end In Part 1 of our article on Westminster Abbey we told you that the formal name of the church is the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster.
Westminster Abbey is a large, mainly Gothic, church just to the west of the Palace of Westminster also known as the Houses of Parliament . Westminster Abbey is the traditional place of the coronation and burial site for British monarchs . | | The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone,
an old engraving |
| In terms of the actual building, Westminster Abbey's two western towers , built between 1722 and 1745 , were designed by Christopher Wren , builder of St Paul's Cathedral . Further rebuilding and restoration of Westminster Abbey occurred in the 19th century.
Until the 19th century , Westminster was the third seat of learning in England, after Oxford and Cambridge . It was here that the first part of the King James Bible Old Testament and the last half of the New Testament were translated. The New English Bible was also assembled here in the 20th century .
Since the coronations in 1066 of both King Harold and William the Conqueror , all English and British monarchs (except Edward V and Edward VIII , who did not have coronations) have been crowned in Westminster Abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the traditional cleric in the coronation ceremony.
The King's Chair (or St Edward's Chair ), is the throne in Westminster Abbey on which British sovereigns are seated at the moment of coronation. The Westminster Abbey throne has been used at every coronation since 1308 .
From 1301 to 1996 (except for a short time in 1950 when it was temporarily stolen by Scottish nationalists ), the chair also housed the Stone of Scone upon which the kings of Scotland are crowned. Pending another coronation the Stone of Scone is now kept in Scotland .
Westminster Abbey is also the burial place of British monarchs . As we have said, Henry III rebuilt the Abbey in honour of his hero, the Royal Saint Edward the Confessor , whose relics were placed in a shrine in the Westminster Abbey sanctuary and now lie in a burial vault in front of the High Altar . Henry III was interred nearby as were many of the Plantagenet kings of England , their wives and other relatives. Subsequently, most Kings and Queens of England were buried in Westminster Abbey, although Henry VIII and Charles I are buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle , as are all monarchs and royals after George II .
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|  | | Westminster Abbey at night | Westminster Abbey is also the buriel site of others. Aristocrats were buried inside chapels and monks and people associated with Westminster Abbey were buried in the Cloisters and other areas. One of these was Geoffrey Chaucer , who was buried here as he had apartments in the Abbey where he was employed as M aster of the Kings Works . Other poets were buried or memorialized around Chaucer in Westminster Abbey in what became known as Poets' Corner .
These include: William Blake, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Gray, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats and Rudyard Kipling, John Masefield, John Milton, Laurence Olivier, Alexander Pope, Nicholas Rowe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Shadwell, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth.
Westminster Abbey musicians such as Henry Purcell were also buried in their place of work. Subsequently it became one of Britain's most significant honours to be buried or commemorated here. The practice spread from aristocrats and poets to generals, admirals, politicians, scientists, and doctors.
Westminster Abbey is a place offering a combination of spirituality, extensive history and wonderful architecture. | | The Abbey Choir, an 1848 print |
| If you are looking to find Westminster Abbey, as we suggested in Part 1, have some fun with the London cabbie and ask for the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster and check out the reaction!
If he nods his head sagely and drives you straight to Westminster Abbey then that shows you how much WE know! |
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