Being a tourist - Westminster Abbey

I was in London at the weekend, primarily to see 'Apologia' at Trafalgar Studios. However, I arrived early, I decided to be a proper tourist and visit Westminster Abbey.

I was probably taken there as a child, but I haven't visited it as an Adult (not least because of the eye-watering entry fee - £22 - and the fact that there are often long queues to get in. )

It was rather crowded, and I was a little disappointed that there were more signs warning of CCTV than there were giving information about the church or the various tombs. However, those things don't detract from the fact that it's a very interesting, and in parts, stunningly beautiful building.

They had, of course, rather cornered the market in dead monarchs, from Edward the Confessor, to Richard II, Henry V,  Queens Elizabeth I and Mary I (and Mary Queen of Scots), up to George III (they don't, of Course, have Richard III, although they do have his wife.

You are not allowed to go into the shrine of Edward the Confessor,  but the chapel where Elizabeth I and Mary are both buried is open - Elizabeth has a very fancy tomb (and a not-entirely-flattering effigy)

Window and ceiling of side chapel and Queen Elizabeth I's tomb

The ceiling of the chapel is beautiful. It seems a little odd that Elizabeth and Mary should be buried together, all things considered... 

There are also, of course, lots of other famous people buried or commemorated in the Abbey (which, for my fellow pedants, isn't actually, technically, an Abbey or Cathedral anymore, but is a 'royal peculiar'.)

Isaac Newton has a colossal, rather baroque tomb, and there are some positively dreadful  (from the point of view of my personal artistic taste) Charles Fox, for instance, whose tomb presents him as a rather dissolute Roman (which , thinking about it, might not be entirely inappropriate, if Fox is the one I think he is) 

Ceiling of Henry VII's Lady Chapel

One of the most stunning parts of the Abbey is the Henry VII Lady Chapel, at the East End of the church - it has an absolutely exquisite fan vaulted ceiling. It really is impressive. I rather suspect that Henry VII was a bit of a bastard, but I will give him credit for having employed a very good architect and builders!

There is also some lovely modern stained glass (I believe the original was destroyed in the blitz - the end of the lady chapel is now the RAF chapel) 

Then there is poets' corner - Geoffrey Chaucer was buried there (although not, it seems, on his merits as a poet, but simply because he was at one time Clerk of Works. The current tomb was erected in the 16th C. 

However, since his time others have been buried there - Jonson, Dickens, Hardy, with many others having memorials there, including Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis and a number of the War poets. 

The other thing Westminster Abbey has, of course,  is the Coronation Chair, which they have had, and have been crowning monarchs on, since 1308....   

And they have the rather nice portrait of Richard II (which dates back to around 1390, and is apparently the earliest contemporary  portrait of an English monarch)

As well as the church itself, one may visit the Chapter House (nice, but not a patch on Wells, in my partial opinion!)  

Chapter House

And cloisters, where, among less memorable memorials, there is a rather nice (modern) memorial to Sir Edmond Halley, for instance.

I did enjoy my visit.