Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Except for Edward V and Edward VIII, every English coronation has taken place in the Abbey starting with William The Conqueror on Christmas day 1066.

The towers at the western end of the Abbey are in the Classical style and were designed by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor in the early 18th century.

The Abbey houses the bones of Edward The Confessor, England's last Anglo-Saxon king.

The Abbey contains the remains of, and memorials to, roughly 3,300 people including the memorial to the Unknown Warrior.

Some of the famous people interred in the Abbey include Charles Dickens, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Laurence Olivier.

Despite being an abbey, Westminster Abbey has not accommodated any monks since the 16th century.

A church has stood on this site since 616 AD.

The church is one of the most famous in Britain and is one of London's most visited tourist attractions.

On 6th September 1997 hundreds of millions of people around the world watched live TV broadcasts of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales which was held in the abbey.

Abbey officials refused permission for interior filming of the 2006 movie 'The Da Vinci Code' on the grounds that the book on which the film was based was deemed "theologically unsound"; interior filming was instead undertaken in Lincoln Cathedral.

Regarding architectural style this cathedral is the most ‘French’ of all major English churches and Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims served in some way as a model for this cathedral. Despite the French influence, the main architectural style is still English gothic.

The construction of this cathedral started by order of King Henry III, who also completely financed the project.

When the church was inaugurated in 1269, the choir, the transept and four traves of the nave (east side of the nave) were completed. Additionally numerous interior decorations were also completed by then.

After the death of the royal architect in 1272 the construction works ceased for a while. The nave was finally completed in 1375.

The maximum height under the vault is 32 m. When completed this was the highest value in England for that time.