Westminster Abbey in a Mask

After visiting St Paul's Cathedral a few weeks ago I decided that I'd also visit Westminster Abbey when it re-opened for visitors and I went to the old place yesterday. It's probably three decades or more since I was last inside the Abbey although I have occasionally visited the Cloister when you could access it from Dean's Yard. I worked within a couple of minutes walk of the Abbey for 26 years so I'm very familiar with the old pile from the outside, but not the inside. The Abbey is a working church but it's also a reliquary of the history of this little island.

It was originally built in 1065 on the site of an earlier Benedictine church by order of King Edward, later Saint Edward the Confessor, who is still buried there. He died in 1066 and later that year, William of Normandy (the Conqueror) was crowned king of England, starting the long tradition of all coronations taking place in the Abbey. The place has been added to, extended and re-modelled over the centuries. It's strange to walk around the tombs of these almost mythical old kings and queens, earls and dukes, the plaques and flagstones engraved with names from over the centuries, the names of poets and writers, scientists and politicians. It was a big surprise to see the names of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan on flagstones. Younger readers might not even know who they were but I remember them.

The visitor entrance is still the North Door and you need to be masked and observe social distancing when you can. Tickets need to be bought online in advance. There's a one-way route marked with pink signs that takes you to some of the more famous and interesting things to see in the old church. The walls are covered with plaques and monuments to dead people and you walk on graves with the flagstones you walk on commemorating the great and the good as well as people you've never heard of. I walked over Sir Isaac Newton without noticing since I was too busy looking at the grave of Charles Darwin and wondering where Stephen Dawkins was buried.

The route takes you to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior surrounded by red poppies. It was quite moving to read the long inscription ending with, 'They buried him among the Kings because he had done good towards God and toward his House'. It made me wonder what will happen to the Field of Remembrance in the grounds of the Abbey this year, when the grounds are planted with crosses and symbols of the regiments and names of the dead in wars and conflicts since the First World War.

The route continues down through the nave, through the Quire and around the High Altar. This is where the early kings are buried in stone caskets under the vaulted roof of the Lady Chapel, along with later kings and their families. Light floods the chapel and the colourful banners bring the place to life. The route takes you past the tombs of Elizabeth and Mary but the rooms are closed because they're so small.

Follow the route round and you come to Poet's Corner and the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer ('Canterbury Tales' anyone?). Apparently the tradition of burying poets and writers in that area of the Abbey begun when Edmund Spencer asked to be buried near Chaucer in 1598. Not all of the poets named in plaques and memorials are actually buried there, some are named in honour on flagstones or with plaques on the walls. You see the names of Lord Byron, George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans, Dylan Thomas, Ted Hughes, Jane Austin, WH Auden, CS Lewis and a host of others, some still famous names, others not so famous. There's a large statue to Shakespeare, a bust to William Blake and a monument to Handel.

The route then takes you out into the Cloister and the Chapter House. It's another very light space and is where the Benedictines used to gather back in the day and for a century or so was used for storage. A thing that fascinated me was the paintings on the walls behind the stone benches. It looked like the paint was applied directly to the stones rather than to a surface of plaster. I'll have to do some research on that since it seems like such an odd way to work.

You then head back into the Abbey proper with a big memorial flagstone to Churchill and, near the West Door and exit is the Coronation Chair in a glass room on its own. It's over 700 years old and is where the monarch is seated in front of the High Altar to receive the crown. I thought it looked a bit strange, a bit too wide for its height maybe? And then out into the open air through the West Door and you can leave or visit the shop which also operates a one-way system. Looking back over the West Door is a frieze of statues that I've never really looked at before, despite walking past that door thousands of times over the years. The statues are of Modern Martyrs, most of whom I've never heard of but included is a statue to Martin Luther King.

I'm pleased I visited the Abbey, I remembered a lot and learned a lot. It was busier than I expected but not crowded. For some odd reason you're not allowed to take photos inside the Abbey (as I found out after taking a photo just inside the entrance) so the internal photos here are taken from the web. I think I'd quite like to go back in the run-up to Christmas, when the light is weaker and the air is cold. I suspect the place feels even more atmospheric. The Abbey also usually has a large Christmas Tree outside, near the North Door. I suspect Christmas 2020 will be a strange time in this strangest of years.