Westminster Abbey

The Only Grave You Cannot Walk On

There is one tomb in Westminster Abbey where it is forbidden to step: the grave of the Unknown Warrior, installed in November 1920 just inside the west entrance. The warrior is buried in soil brought from the battlefields of France, making the grave technically French territory. Every British monarch since George V has walked around it. Every coronation procession has deviated to avoid it. Among the 3,300 people buried or commemorated in the Abbey, it is the only one whose identity is specifically not known, and the one whose grave receives the most flowers.

Westminster Abbey is not primarily a tourist attraction. It is a working church, the site of every English and British coronation since 1066, and the burial place of monarchs, scientists, soldiers, poets, and musicians arranged in a density that makes almost every floor slab significant. The experience of visiting depends heavily on whether you treat it as an architecture tour or as the compressed history it actually is.

Tickets and Hours

As of late 2025, adult admission is £31. Seniors (65+) and students pay £28. Children aged 6 to 17 pay £14; under-6s are free. Timed entry is required and booking in advance through the official website is strongly recommended. Walk-up tickets are available but supply is limited during busy periods.

Opening hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9:30 to 15:30 (last entry 15:00). Wednesday hours extend to 16:30. Saturday closing is 13:30. The Abbey is closed to visitors on Sundays, when it operates as a church only; services are free to attend and open to anyone.

The standard ticket includes a multimedia guide in 14 languages, access to the nave, transepts, Henry VII Chapel, Royal Tombs, Chapter House, Pyx Chamber, and the Cloisters.

Getting there: Westminster Station (District and Circle lines) is directly opposite the entrance. St James’s Park station (District and Circle lines) is a 5-minute walk from the other direction.

What to See

The Nave and Central Crossing

The nave is the longest medieval nave in England, and the first impression on entering is of extreme height relative to width. The stone is cream-coloured Bath stone, and the light that comes through the clerestory windows gives the interior a quality distinct from darker Gothic churches. The floor is almost entirely composed of memorial slabs, many worn smooth by centuries of foot traffic, each covering someone.

Poets’ Corner

In the south transept, more than 100 writers, poets, and composers are buried or commemorated. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first (buried 1400), and the practice of placing poets near him grew from that precedent. Buried here: Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, and many others. Among the most visited: Charles Dickens, who asked specifically to be buried without any public ceremony, had that wish largely overridden. Nearby are memorials (not graves) to Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and the Brontës.

Ben Jonson is buried standing up. He was chronically short of money and could only afford an eighteen-inch plot. A passer-by reportedly gave a stonemason eighteen pence to carve the inscription “O Rare Ben Jonson.”

The Henry VII Lady Chapel

Built between 1503 and 1519, the Henry VII chapel at the eastern end of the Abbey is a late Perpendicular Gothic structure with fan vaulting so elaborate it appears physically improbable. The ceiling, completed in stone, mimics the structural logic of fan vaulting while actually being more complex than anything structurally necessary. The chapel is the burial place of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, as well as Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, who are buried in separate chapels at opposite ends of the same aisle, which is either a historical irony or a deliberate one.

The Coronation Chair

The oak chair built in 1300 to house the Stone of Scone (the Scottish coronation stone) was used at every coronation from Edward II in 1308 until Charles III in 2023. The Stone of Scone was returned to Scotland in 1996 and now lives in Edinburgh Castle, returned to Westminster only for coronation use. The chair itself shows centuries of graffiti carved by schoolboys from Westminster School who were historically allowed into the Abbey unsupervised and evidently used the opportunity.

The Royal Graves

Most English monarchs from the 10th to the 17th century are buried here, with gaps. Henry VIII is not, being at Windsor. The earliest royal tomb of note is Edward the Confessor, whose shrine forms the spiritual centre of the medieval Abbey and whose body has been here since 1269. Edward I, who erected the Coronation Chair, is buried nearby. Richard II’s tomb, which he designed himself in his lifetime and which includes his effigy alongside that of his first wife Anne of Bohemia, is among the most artistically significant in the building.

Scientists in the Nave

A cluster of graves in the nave’s north aisle constitutes something like a history of British science. Isaac Newton is here, with a monument so elaborate that it effectively initiated the practice of burying non-royal, non-ecclesiastical figures in the Abbey. Charles Darwin is buried next to him, which would have struck both men as extremely strange. Michael Faraday declined burial at the Abbey; his grave is at Highgate. Stephen Hawking was interred here in 2018.

The Chapter House and Cloisters

Included in the standard ticket, the Chapter House is a 13th-century octagonal room with original floor tiles and wall paintings, used as a meeting room for the monks of the Benedictine monastery that once occupied the Abbey complex. From 1352 to 1547, it served as a meeting place for the House of Commons, which is the direct institutional ancestor of the parliament that now meets 100 metres away. The medieval tiles on the floor are the best surviving example of this type of floor decoration in England.

The Cloisters connect the Chapter House to the main building and provide one of the quieter areas of the visit. They are also where the College Garden is accessible: a walled garden that has been cultivated continuously since the 11th century, claimed to be the oldest garden in England.

Around the Abbey

Westminster and St James’s Park

The immediate neighbourhood is government territory. The Houses of Parliament are next door, accessible by separate ticket or tour. Horse Guards Parade and St James’s Park are a 10-minute walk. Buckingham Palace is 15 minutes. The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square is 20 minutes on foot.

For a different perspective on British history without the crowds: the Churchill War Rooms, buried beneath the Treasury building a 5-minute walk from the Abbey, are less well-attended than the Abbey itself and arguably more significant for understanding the 20th century.

Where to Eat

The Abbey has its own café in the Cellarium, a vaulted Norman undercroft that was the monks’ store room, serving light lunches and coffee. For something more substantial nearby: Boisdale of Belgravia (Eccleston Street, 15 minutes walk) is an opinionated choice for Scottish beef and whisky in a formal setting. For something cheaper and quicker, the covered market at Victoria Station has better food options than the area immediately around the Abbey, which is dominated by tourist-facing sandwich chains.

Where to Stay

The Goring (Beeston Place) is the closest luxury hotel to the Abbey and is the one the royal family uses for overflow guests during state occasions. The rates reflect this position. For a mid-range option, the Park Plaza County Hall on the South Bank gives good value for location: Westminster Bridge is a 5-minute walk and the view from the upper floors across to the Palace of Westminster is exceptional.

Practical Advice

The Abbey closes to visitors during services, which happen multiple times daily. Check the schedule before you visit; arriving to find access suspended for a memorial service or a choir rehearsal is a common source of disappointment. The website posts the daily schedule.

The audio guide is better than average for a major attraction and is particularly useful in Poets’ Corner and the Henry VII chapel, where the density of information makes unguided visits superficial. The multimedia guide is included in the ticket price.

Photography is permitted inside the Abbey without flash. This changed in recent years; older advice saying photography was banned is no longer accurate.

The best time to visit for thin crowds is a Tuesday or Thursday morning at opening time. Avoid the period around major state occasions (which close the Abbey entirely), the weeks around Easter, and August Saturday afternoons, which are reliably the worst combination of high attendance and restricted hours.