Photo 1: Westminster Abbey looking north east. The Houses of Parliament are just off to the right in the next block.
Photo 1: Westminster Abbey looking north east. The Houses of Parliament are just off to the right in the next block. |
To complete our tour of the major cathedrals, we took the Underground to Westminster station and came up into the sunlight to discover that the entire office block across the street from the Houses of Parliament had been razed to be rebuilt into something else (I don't know what.) After picking our way around the construction, and across the great traffic circle outside the H of P, we found ourselves on the grounds of Westminster Abbey. The first building one comes to is the very lovely St. Margaret's. This is a small chapel which one never hears about because it is overshadowed (figuratively and literally) by its world-famous next door neighbor. |
 Photo 2: Flying buttresses holt it up. |
Between them is a temporary building which houses a multimedia presentation on Westminster. We sprung for the admission price and saw a well produced multi-projector slide/sound show with several video segments thrown in. There were earphones for languages other than English and there were even a couple of 3-d props which popped up out of the stage during the show. We had been prepared for the very imposing sound track because most of the low frequency leaked out through the canvas walls during the preceding showing while we were waiting! |
 Photo 3: The Great Rose Window in the south transept. |
As with St. Paul's, the building itself was breathtaking. All the famous people who aren't already buried in St. Paul's are buried in Westminster. In St. Paul's the crypt was a separate section in the basement and the markers were all marble tablets (some in the floor and the rest in the walls). At Westminster, there are many large memorials, tombs, statuary, etc. Of course this is where the royalty and government are burried. There are also many unique markers in the walls around the cloister including one resembling a comet (Halley), and a ship (Drake). There was also a memorial of a man who was said to have invented PMS. Wouldn't you know that would have been invented by a man! Lacy took a picture of it. |
 Photo 4: Cloister looking south from the nave. |
While we were in the Abbey, there was a service performed by C of E celebrants apparently from India (a former British Empire colony). Many of the participants were dressed in traditional Indian garb. After refreshing ourselves with a snack from the stand in the cloister hall, we took the Underground and minibus back to Rotherthite a little early in order to pack up for the next part of the trip. |