Description
This Westminster Abbey guided tour gives you the church where monarchs have been crowned for centuries, with a timed ticket in hand and a licensed guide with the Blue Badge beside you, so no time goes on logistics. It is a small group tour that takes just over an hour.
You meet at Parliament Square, by the statue of Abraham Lincoln, facing the Supreme Court. The guide gives you your bearings among the civic buildings of Westminster, then you walk to the medieval towers and, after the security check, step straight inside. Beneath the ribbed vaults, light filters through the stained glass in colour, and the guide takes you through a thousand years of coronations, weddings and burials.
- The Coronation Chair, an oak seat from the Middle Ages on which English and British monarchs were crowned
- The tomb of Queen Elizabeth I, on the royal burial trail
- Poets' Corner, with the memorials of writers and other cultural figures
The tour ends inside the Abbey, so you can return to a favourite chapel in your own time or head outside, where Big Ben and Parliament are a few minutes' walk. It suits first-time visitors and returning history lovers who want royal history without giving up a whole day. As a working church, the Abbey calls for modest dress: skip bare shoulders, crop tops and very short shorts or skirts.