THE CHOIR was originally the part of the Abbey in which the monks
worshipped, but there is now no trace of the pre- Reformation fittings,
for in the late eighteenth century Kneene, the then Surveyor, removed the
thirteenth-century stalls and designed a smaller Choir. This was in turn
destroyed in the mid-nineteenth century by Edward Blore, who created the
present Choir in Victoria Gothic style and removed the partitions which
until then had blocked off the transepts
It is here that the choir of about twenty-two boys and twelve Lay
Vicars sings the daily services. The boys are educated at the Choir School
attached to the Abbey ;mention of such a school is made in the fifteenth
century and it may be even older in origin. For some centuries it was
linked with Westminster School, but became independent in the mid-
nineteenth century.
The Organ was originally built by Shrider in 1730. Successive
rebuildings in 1849,1884,1909,,and 1937 and extensive work in 1983 have
resulted in the present instrument.
THE SANCTUARY is the heart of the Abbey, where the High Altar stands
The altar and the reredos behind it, with a mosaic of the Last Supper, were
designed by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1867. Standing on the altar are two
candlesticks, bought with money bequeathed by a serving-maid, Sarah
Hughes, in the seventeenth century. In front of the altar, but protected by
carpeting, is another of the Abbey’s treasures - a now-very-worn pavement
dating from the thirteenth century. The method of its decoration is known
as Cosmati work, after the Italian family who developed the technique of
inlaying intricate designs made up of small pieces of coloured marble into
a plain marble ground.
THE NORTH TRANSEPT, to the left of the Sanctuary, has a beautiful rose
window designed by Sir James Thornhill, showing eleven Apostles. The
Transept once led to Solomon’s Porch and now leads to the nineteenth-
century North Front.
THE HENRY YII CHAPEL, beyond the apse, was begun in 1503 as a burial
place for Henry YI, on the orders of Henry YII, but it was Henry.YII
himself who was finally buried here, in an elaborate tomb. The master
mason, who designed the chapel was probably Robert Vertue his brother
William constructed the vault at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 1505 and
this experience may have helped in the creation of the magnificent vaulting
erected here a few years later.
The chapel has an apse and side aisles which are fan-vaulted, and the
central section is roofed with extraordinarily intricate and finely-
detailed circular vaulting ,embellished with more Tudor badges and with
carved pendants, which is literally breath-taking in the perfection of its
beauty and artistry.
Beneath the windows, once filled with glass painted by Bernard Flower
of which only fragments now remain, are ninety-four of the original 107
statues of saints, placed in richly embellished niches. Beneath these, in
turn, hang the banners of the living Knights Grand Cross of the Order of
the Bath, whose chapel this is. When the Order was founded in 1725, extra
stalls and seats were added to those originally provided. To the stalls
are attached plates recording the names and arms of past Knights of the
Order, while under the seats can be seen finely carved misericords.
The altar, a copy of the sixteenth-century altar incorporates two
of the original pillars and under its canopy hangs a fifteenth-century
Madonna and Child by Vivarini.
In the centre of the apse, behind the altar, stand the tomb of Henry
YII and Elizabeth of York, protected by a bronze screen. The tomb was the
work of Torrigiani and the effigies of the king and queen are finely
executed in gilt bronze.
In later years many more royal burials took place in the chapel. Mary
I, her half-sister Elizabeth I and half-brother Edward YI all lie here The
Latin inscription on thetomb - on which only Elizabeth Ist effigy rests -
reads: «Consorts both in throne and grave, here rest we two sisters,
Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one Resurrection».
In the south asle lies Mary Queen of Scots, mother of James Yi and I,
who brought her body from Peterborough and gave her a tomb even more
magnificent than that which he had erected for his cousin Elizabeth.I.
In the same aisle lies Henry YII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess
of Richmond. Her effigy, a bronze by Torrigiani, shows her in old age.
She was known for her charitable works and for her intellect - she founded
Christ’s and St John’s Colleges at Cambridge - and these activities are
recorded in the inscription composed by Erasmus. Also in this aisle is
the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Lennox.
THE CHAPEL OF ST EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, containing his shrine, lies
east of the Sanctuary at the heart of the Abbey. It is closed off from the
west by a stone screen, probably of fifteenth-century date, carved with
scenes from the life of Edward the Confessor; it is approached from the
east via a bridge from the Henry YII Chapel.
The shrine seen today within the chapel is only a ghost of its former
self. It originally had three parts: a stone base decorated with Cosmati
work, a gold feretory containing the saint’s coffin, a canopy above which
could be raised to reveal the feretory or lowered to protect it. Votive
offerings of gold and jewels were given to enrich the feretory over the
centuries. To this shrine came many pilgrims, and the sick were frequently
left beside it overnight in the hope of a cure. All this ceased at the
Reformation The shrine was dismantled and stored by the monks; the gold
feretory was taken away from them, but they were allowed to rebury the
saint elsewhere in the Abbey.
It was during the reign of Mary I that a partial restoration of the
shrine took place. The stone base was re-assembled, the coffin was placed,
in the absence of a feretory, in the top part of the stone base and the
canopy positioned on top. The Chapel has a Cosmati floor, similar to that
before the High Altar, and a blank space in the design shows where the
shrine once stood; it also indicates that the shrine was originally
raised up on a platform, making the canopy visible beyond the western
screen. The canopy of the shrine has recently been restored, and hopefully
one day the rest of the shrine will also be restored.
And within the chapel can be seen the Coronation Chair and the tombs
of five kings and four queens. At the eastern end is the tomb and Chantey
Chapel of Henry Y, embellished with carvings including scenes of
Henry Y’s coronation. The effigy of the king once had a silver head and
silver regalia, and was covered in silver regalia, and was covered in
silver gilt, but this precious metal was stolen in 1546.
Eleanor of Castle, first wife of Edward I, lies beside the
Chapel. Her body was carried to Westminster from Lincoln, a memorial
cross being erected at each place where the funeral procession rested.
Beside her lies Henry III, responsible for the rebuilding of the
Abbey, in a tomb of Purbeck marble. Next to his tomb is that of Edward I.
Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, Edward III and Philippa of Hainnault, and
Catherine de Valois, Henry Y’s Queen, also lie in this chapel.
THE SOUTH TRANSEPT is lit by a large rose window, with glass dating
from 1902. Beneath it, in the angles above the right and left arches, are
two of the finest carvings in the Abbey, depicting sensing angels. In
addition to the many monuments there are two fine late thirteen-century
wall-paintings, uncovered in 1936, to be seen by the door leading into St
Faith’s Chapel. They depict Christ showing his wounds to Doubting Thomas,
and St Christopher. Beside the south wall rises the dormer staircase, once
used by the monks going from their dormitory to the Choir for their
night offices.
POET’S CORNER
One of the most well-known parts of Westminster Abbey, Poet’s
Corner can be found in the south Transept. It was not originally designated
as the burial place of writers, playwrights and poets; the first poet to be
buried here, Geoffrey Chaucer, was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey
because he had been Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, not
because he had written the Canterbury Tales. However, the inscription over
his grave, placed there by William Caxton - the famous printer whose press
was just beyond the transept wall - mentioned that he was a poet.
Over 150 years later, during the flowering of English
literature in the sixteenth century, a more magnificent tomb was erected
to Chaucer by Nicholas Brigham and in 1599 Edmund Spencer was laid to rest
nearby. These two tombs began a tradition which developed over succeeding
centuries.
Burial or commemoration in the abbey did not always occur at or
soon after the time of death - many of those whose monuments now stand here
had to wait a number of years for recognition; Byron, for example, whose
lifestyle caused a scandal although his poetry was much admired, died in
1824 but was finally given a memorial only in 1969. Even Shakespeare,
buried at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, had to wait until 1740 before a
monument, designed by William Kent, appeared in Poet’s Corner. Other poets
and writers, well-known in their own day, have now vanished into obscurity,
with only their monuments to show that they were once famous.
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