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LONDON TRAVEL GUIDE, CONTINUED
The Confessor's tomb
Henry III (reigned 1216-72) is an important figure in the history of the abbey, for it was he who ordered the demolition of Edward the Confessor's 200-year-old abbey and the construction of the present building. He was not denigrating the Confessor's work, however. The Confessor had been made a saint by the pope, and Henry's aim in rebuilding the church was to create a fitting house for the Confessor's tomb, by this time one of the most visited shrines in the kingdom. When you get to the Confessor's tomb note how the stones at the bridge end as you approach have been worn into hollows by the knees of thousands of medieval pilgrims. Catholics still come to pray here. It is the only important shrine in the country that is still in its original position and that still contains the body of its saint.
Later on, you will come to Poets' Corner in the south transept. When you get there, face the far end of the transept and look up to first-floor level. You should be able to see an arcade, lit from behind, with a large painted clock in the middle. To the right are some stairs, and to the left there are some more, descending to a ledge on which stands a bust. These stairs are another important relic of the old monastic abbey, for they form part of the night passage that led from the monks' dormitory down into the abbey. The passage was used by those unfortunates who had to get up in the middle of the night to conduct and attend services. Today the dormitory is split into the Abbey Library and the main hall of Westminster School.
St Faith's Chapel
You now leave the abbey church and enter the east side of the monks' cloister, which is still in a good state of preservation. The first entrance you come to leads into the chapter house, a marvellous 13th-century chamber where the monks would meet to discuss their affairs and conduct any business needing their attention. It's surprisingly little visited. Even quieter is St Faith's Chapel, reached by a door to your left as you enter the chapter house's vestibule.
The door opposite the entrance to St Faith's Chapel leads into a broom cupboard. Centuries ago it was the entrance to the Pyx, where the monastery's valuables were stored. One day in the BOOs the treasury was robbed. After the thief had been caught and executed, his skin was pinned up like leather on the back of the door as a warning to others who might be tempted by the monastery's gold and jewels. Traces of that skin are still clearly visible on the cupboard side of the door, a fact you may be able to verify for yourself if the English Heritage counter staff are in an obliging frame of mind.
Thrn left out of the chapter house's vestibule and continue along the east cloister. The first door on the left is the entrance to the stairs leading up to the Abbey Library, formerly part of the monks' dormitory. This used to be open to visitors on Wednesdays, but it is now closed to all but readers, which is a pity because it is the only surviving completely original section of the dormitory. Though filled with 17thcentury shelves and leather-bound books, it gives you a good iClea of the massive size of the dormitory. It still has its original wooden roof, now nearly 500 years old, whereas the roof of Westminster School hall - the other and larger section of the old dormitory - was destroyed in the Second World War.
Pyx Chamber and Abbey Museum
After the library you come to the Pyx Chamber and the Westminster Abbey Museum. Together, these places form part of the undercroft to the monks' dormitory. They are very ancient - as you can tell from their sturdy and rather primitive architecture - and together with neighbouring passages and undercrofts, are the oldest part of the whole abbey, having been part of the original structure built by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.
The main feature of the museum is the collection of royal and noble funeral effigies, covering the late Middle Ages and the 17th and 18th centuries. The faces are made from death masks and the later ones are dressed up in magnificent original costumes. If you want to know what people like wily Henry VII, gay King Charles II with his plumed hat, and diminutive Lord Nelson really looked like, this is the place to come. Look carefully at Henry VII's rather ascetic face, and you will even see above his ears tufts of hair that got caught when the mask was peeled off. It is extraordinary how few Londoners know about this incredibly evocative collection, and it remains, buried as it is deep in the Westminster complex, among the most precious of the city's secret treasures.
As you turn left out of the museum into the gloomy Dark Passage you are still in the oldest part of the monastery. Follow the sign to the garden and turn left. Under the skylight, the door on the left (opposite No. 8) leads into the Westminster School gym, which you see on the school tour. It is a relatively modern building and is not part of the original monastery, but it covers the site of the monks' cemetery.
College Garden
Carrying on you come to the hospital and old people's home section of the monastery. First you see the Little, or Infirmary, Cloister, where sick and aged monks lived and exercised. The houses around, at least their ground floors, date from the BOOs. On the far side of the cloister are the remains (foundations only) of the infirmary chapel of St Katharine's. On the far right-hand corner of the cloister is the entrance to the infirmary garden. Here the monastery's physician grew the medicinal herbs with which he treated his patients. Today it is called the College Garden. The 18th-century boys' dormitory block runs down the right-hand side, and if you look through the gate to the right of it you can see into the modern school yard. Only the original medieval abbey's wall separates the garden from parliament and the outside world beyond, but it's amazing how few people, apart from those who live and work close by, know about it. The garden is perhaps the most secret space in central London to which there is nevertheless easy, free and regular public access. In the summer a band plays on Thursday lunchtimes.
Now retrace your steps back through the Little Cloister. As you pass through the Dark Passage look up through the windows on the left. The high wall you can see was part of the monk's refectory, one of the few buildings pulled down following the ejection ofthe monks. The space the refectory occupied now provides an enclosed garden for Ashburnham House, which you see on the Westminster School tour.
Nine Men's Morris
Carry on back along the east cloister to the door into the abbey and then turn left along the north cloister where the brass-rubbing stands are. Facing south and protected from the cold north winds by the abbey, this was the main living and working area for the monks. At the far end, on the stone-seat on the right by another door into the abbey, you can see where the novices - of whom there were only about half a dozen at any one time - have worn little hollows for their games of marbles and Nine Men's Morris,
turn left here into the west cloister, At the far end on the right is a recess containing a memorial to the Indian Civil Service. Originally this was the lavatoriurn, where the monks washed their hands before proceeding on to their meals in the refectory through the door ahead (now leading to the Abbey Song School). They dried their hands on towels in the narrow recesses to the left of the refectory door.
Abbot's lodging
Thrn right here and go through the archway, Just before you come out into Dean's Yard, look right through another archway. This leads into the courtyard of the Abbot of Westminster's house, the oldest residence in London. Today the abbot's successor, the Dean of Westminster, occupies the house, The living quarters are actually on the right. At the far end are the Jericho Parlour, a simple and austere 16th-century panelled room, and the more richly furnished late 14th-century Jerusalem Chamber, hung with tapestries and used for meetings by the dean and chapter. Henry IV died in this room in 1413. To the left is the abbot's dining hall, now the school's dining hall. The living quarters, Jericho Parlour and Jerusalem Chamber are never open to the public, but the dining hall is included in the tour of the school.
As you come out into Dean's Yard, try to forget the modern square surrounded by buildings and imagine instead fields with animals and crops. These are what you would have seen 500 years ago, for this was the location of the abbey's farm, Worked by the monks themselves, it was the main food supply for the abbey community and any guests who happened to be staying. The abbey's guest house and the cellarer's house were in the old range to your left, Half-way along this side of Dean's Yard a low stone archway, bearing all the signs of its great age, leads into what is now the main yard of Westminster School. Here the principal things you will see relating to the monastery are the main section of the monks' dormitory and the abbot's 14th-century dining hall. |
