Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is a gothic church in central London.

Westminster Abbey with a procession of Knights of the Bath, by Canaletto, 1749

King Edward the Confessor built Westminster Abbey. As he dared not leave his kingdom, Edward the Confessor's original intention to make a pilgrimage to St Peter's Tomb was substituted by the rebuilding at Westminster of an abbey dedicated to St Peter for the Benedictine monks.

Traditionally founded by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, early in the 7th century, Edward The Confessor rebuilt the abbey starting around 1042 as a burial place for English kings.

Edward completed Westminster Abbey on the site of a small monastic building on Thorney Island in the marshes near the River Thames in 1065. It was to be served by Benedictine monks and intended to be the royal church. Unfortunately Edward was too ill to attend the ceremony of dedication.

Westminster Abbey was built close to where a vision of St Peter is said to have been seen on the Thames by a salmon fisherman named Edric. The Fishermen's Company offers a salmon to Westminster Abbey each year in memory of this.

Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 at his new palace at Westminster which was built so he could be close to his beloved abbey. He passed away within ten days of the consecrating of Westminster Abbey on December 28, 1065, and the Benedictine monks buried him within its walls.

St Peter's Abbey at the time of Edward's funeral, depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

Rebuilding was begun by Henry III of England in 1245, who selected the site for his burial. It was finished in 1528 shortly before the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The abbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland stone to an early example of a Gothic Revival design.

Coronations have been held at the abbey since those of King Harold II in January 1066 and William The Conqueror in December 1066.

For centuries, the Coronation Chair included the Stone of Scone, on which Scottish kings were crowned. It was brought to England by Edward I in 1296. 700 years later, in a symbolic response to growing dissatisfaction among Scots at the prevailing constitutional settlement, the British Government decided that the stone should be kept in Scotland when not in use at coronation.

King Edward's chair. By Kjetil Bjørnsrud 

Monks in Westminster Abbey would eat 6,000 calories a day normally and 4,500 a day when "fasting". They drank a gallon of beer and 10 oz of wine and ate 2.25 lbs of bread, 5 eggs, and 2 lbs of meat or fish a day. Many monks became obese and suffered related conditions.

Westminster Abbey's formal title is The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster. The more popular title is still used today, even though no monks have lived there since the 16th century.

The present Gothic abbey has the medieval shrine of Edward the Confessor at its heart.

Westminster School, a public school near to the abbey, was once the Abbey School.

In 1399 Canterbury Tales author Geoffrey Chaucer took a lease on a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey.

Covent Garden was originally the market garden for the convent of Westminster Abbey. Referred to as "the garden of the Abbey and Convent", and later "the Covent Garden", it was seized by Henry VIII and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552.

At least 16 royal weddings have been held at Westminster Abbey, though the only reigning monarchs to be married there were Henry I and Richard II.

Poets Corner was began by the burial of Edmund Spenser in 1599.

The poet Ben Jonson is the only person buried in a standing position in the abbey.

One of the most famous tombs in Westminster Abbey is that of The Unknown Warrior. A tomb of an unknown British soldier who was killed on the battlefield during World War I. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on November 11, 1920. The tomb is in the far western end of the nave and is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble. It is the only tomb in the abbey on which it is forbidden to walk.

By Mike from England - Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

In 1923, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother became the first royal to lay her bridal bouquet on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Every royal married in the Abbey since has placed their bouquet on the grave the day after their wedding.

Queen Elizabeth II honored Nelson Mandela with a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey in early 2014. This made Mandela the first non-British person to be honored at Westminster Abbey.

When the Episcopal Canon Mary Simpson of New York spoke from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey in 1978, she was the first ordained woman to preach there in the 913 years since the Abbey was first consecrated.

Source Daily Express