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LONDON TRAVEL GUIDE
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Every day 16,000 visitors tread the pavements of Westminster Abbey. What they see is the nation's church, the burial place of our early kings and queens and the scene of every coronation since William the Conqueror's on Christmas Day 1066. Few think to ask why the abbey is called an abbey and not, say, a cathedral. The fact is that for the first 500 years of its l,OOO-year history, Westminster Abbey was a great medieval monastery - possibly, because of its special royal connections, the greatest in the land. What's so exciting today is that, again because of its royal connections, much of the abbey remains intact, embedded in the Westminster complex (which includes neighbouring Westminster School) and overlain by the history of the past 450 non-monastic years. Because of the destruction of the Catholic monasteries in England in the 1530s, such a survival is exceedingly rare in this country. In London, it may be unique. This little-appreciated but magnificent reminder of a lost era is a great secret of the otherwise well-known Westminster Abbey. Not surprisingly, the Catholic monastic past of today'S Anglican church is not stressed on tours of the abbey, although there are now a few panels in the cloisters area illustrating some aspects of the monks' lives.
Unfortunately, a tour of the abbey as a monastery is not quite as straightforward as it sounds, mainly because a large part of the monastery is now part of Westminster School. However, it is possible to tour the school, though only during the Easter holidays, if you book in advance.
The best days to visit the abbey are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because these are the days when the abbey garden - originally the monks' herb garden and a truly secret space right in the heart of London - is open.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
AS you come in through the west door you will see the black marble slab surrounded by red poppies that marks the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Everyone has heard of the tomb, but few people know how it came to be here.
The idea came from a man called David Railton, who was a chaplain serving on the Western Front during the First World War. After the war he mentioned his idea to the Dean of Westminster. The dean liked the idea and got the backing of the king, the prime minister and the military. Wheels were set in motion, and soon after six working parties were sent to the battlefields of Ypres, the Marne, Carnbrai, Arras, the Somme and the Aisne. Each party exhumed one body and brought it back to an Army hut at St Pol. The bodies were then examined to confirm that they were British. At midnight on 8 November, the director of the War Graves Commission in Flanders, Brigadier-General Wyatt, entered the hut blindfolded and touched one of the coffins.
Next day, 9 November, the chosen coffin began its journey back to Britain. It rested the night in the castle in the old town of Boulogne (where there is a plaque recording the fact) and at 8.33 p.m. the following evening reached Victoria Station in London. Having stayed on board the train that night, the next morning, 11 November 1920, the second anniversary of the armistice, it was laid to rest in the specially prepared grave in the abbey. Tb symbolize the fact that all three of the main Western Front allies (Britain, France and Belgium) sustained huge losses of men, the English oak coffin was packed round with French soil and then (some time later) sealed with a slab of black Belgian marble. Other unknown warriors were buried on the same day in other countries. The Unknown Soldier was the last person to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Cosmati pauement
As you stand at the Unknown Soldier's tomb, facing the length of the church, look to the right and you will see a panelled gallery of carved oak known as the Abbot's Pew. This is accessible from the old abbot's lodgings behind and in monastic days enabled the abbot, the head of the monastery, to see directly into the nave of the abbey church from his lodgings. If he wanted to enter the church all he had to do was descend a flight of stairs and open the door you see directly beneath the gallery.
Moving into the abbey down the left-hand aisle, you enter the section that includes the royal tombs and Poets' Corner. Carry on to the crossing and then turn right to stand under the abbey's central tower. On your right now is the quire where the monks sat during services. On your left, hidden beneath the carpet in front of the high altar, is one of the abbey's greatest treasures. Known as the Cosmati pavement, it is made from Purbeck marble (Purbeck is in the south-west of England) inlaid with red-and-green porphyry and glass. The inlay forms complex geometric patterns and inscriptions, one of which states (or used to state before it was worn away) that the floor was laid in 1268. The floor-layers were members of the famous Cosmati family from Rome, possibly the finest architects and decorators of their day. The Westminster floor is a superb example of their work and the only such pavement they ever created in Britain.
Normally the Cosmati pavement is covered by a carpet to protect it, but every few years the cover is taken off for a few days so that people can see it. The pavement is slightly disappointing because a lot of the inlay is missing and the colours have lost much of their vibrancy, but it is still an extremely impressive piece of work. In its original state it must have been as bright and colourful as the square ceiling of the central crossing point of the abbey, which is directly above where you are now standing.
Carrying on down the left aisle of the church, keep an eye out for Henry III's tomb on the right. The tomb also was the work of the Cosmati family and it gives you some idea of what the floor looks like. Note how souvenirhunters of former ages have stripped the mosaic pieces from the tomb up to arm's-reach height. Continued >>>
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