Wall-to-wall marble and stone

While the sun shone and the new job was still a few days away, I thought it best to continue being tourist and walked to Westminster to tour the Abbey.

If St Paul's is to be admired for its relative unadorned simplicity the first thing that hits you upon entering Westminster Abbey is the shear number of memorials and tombs that line its walls, columns and floors. There does not appear to be spare space for anything... and if the number of new interments (and only if you are cremated) and memorials have slowed to a mere trickle in recent years it is understandable ...the place is full! Even the Kings and Queens of England are now buried at Windsor as there is no more room for them at the Abbey.


I decided that the guided tour was the best option here... there is just too much to do on your own... but at 5GBP (on top of the 10GBP entry!) it is no bargain! But, it does go for 1.5 hours (actually almost 2 hours as our guide was very thorough) and it does take you into the Quire, the Screen and St Edward's Shrine which you can't do unless you do the tour ...andwho wants to miss out on being able to touch the tomb of a Saint! Apparently the only one still in one piece in Europe (the Saint that is...)


St Paul's has some rather special people in its Crypt... but Westminster Abbey can top it...


At the top of the hierarchy are the Royal burial. Besides St Edward the Confessor, there is Edward I (a different Edward) Henry III, Edward III, Richard II, Elizabeth I, her half-sister Mary I and basically all English Kings and Queens up to the end of the 18th century and strangely, buried in amongst them all, is Oliver Cromwell...


Those not quite so royal, but just as interesting, include Charles Darwin (Origin of the Species and place in Westminster Abbey, quite the double act! - but he only got into the Abbey at the insistence of Queen Victoria!), Isaac Newton, Dr Livingston I presume?; all in the Science Corner. Nearby in Poet's Corner is Chaucer, Dryden, Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling, and these are just some of the burials... the memorials cover just about everyone who is anyone and cover the walls. There is also an area dedicated to musicians and composers and several Prime Ministers including a large round plaque on the floor near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, stating "Remember Winston Churchill". It was installed by the current Queen and is the last thing you read before you leave the through the Great West Doors.


When you get a moment to look beyond the statues, shields, monuments and carvings, there is quite a remarkable building. The church has been in place a lot longer than St Paul's. It was begun in the 13th century and 700 years has left its mark on the stone. In places it is chipped, broken, scared and worn smooth by continual use over those years. It is stained dark from hands and feet.

The Abbey lacks the shear awe inspiring space of St Paul's, but the Nave ceiling is higher and the pointed Gothic architecture gives the illusion of even more height... the sun pouring in through the clear glass windows (the original stained glass was mostly destroyed by bombing in WWII) casts dramatic light and shadow on the fluted columns and ornate stonework. Down the centre of the Nave hangs a double row of modern chandeliers (a gift, in 1965, from the Guinness company!) they are made of Waterford Crystal and are 10 feet tall but are dwarfed by the height of the Nave.


But! Westminster Abbey does not have a cafeteria! I was somewhat disappointed by that...