Westminster Abbey

In front of you is the coronation church. Edward the Confessor, one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings, built a great abbey here that was consecrated on 28 December 1065, a few days before his death. On Christmas Day 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned in it, and since then almost every English and British monarch has been crowned here, right up to Charles III in 2023.

1An abbey of many centuries

The Gothic building you see was begun by Henry III in 1245, in honour of Edward the Confessor, by then a saint. Work went on for centuries. The two towers on this front came last: Nicholas Hawksmoor designed them in imitation of Gothic, and they were finished in 1745, after his death. Inside lie kings and queens such as Elizabeth I, scientists such as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, and writers in the famous Poets' Corner. By the west door is the grave of the Unknown Warrior, buried on 11 November 1920.

2The martyrs on the façade

Now look at the row of statues above the main door. The niches had stood empty since the Middle Ages, and in 1998 they were filled with ten Christian martyrs of the 20th century from around the world. Among them are Martin Luther King, the Polish friar Maximilian Kolbe and Óscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, murdered in 1980.

The Abbey has been a World Heritage Site since 1987, together with the Palace of Westminster and St Margaret's.

3What to look for

• The ten statues of martyrs above the west door.
• Hawksmoor's towers, from the 18th century.
• St Margaret's, the parish church of Parliament, next door.