Westminster Abbey is a Gothic church that is the traditional place of coronation and burial for English monarchs.

The formal name for Westminster Abbey is the Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster. Westminster Abbey is merely a church owned directly by the royal family. It is neither a parish church nor a cathedral.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the traditional cleric in the coronation ceremonies. The Abbey contains some of the most magnificent medieval architecture in Great Britain.

The oldest part of the Abbey dates back to 1050 and because of its royal connections it was spared King Henry VIII’s wrath and general assault on monastic structures during the Reformation.

It is located next to the Houses of Parliament in the Westminster neighborhood of London.

Wandering through Westminster Abbey one gets a sense of all of the great souls which have passed on. The beauty and peacefulness of this church is a perfect setting for poets and authors and brilliant minds.

Some of the people who are buried in Westminster Abbey are Charles Darwin, Ben Johnson, Sir Isaac Newton, William Pitt the Younger, Robert Browning, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Hardy, Laurence Olivier, George Frederick Handel, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling, and Alfred Tennyson.

One can imagine the conversations and debates and the music that is playing in the quiet silence in Poet’s Corner while the resting eyes of former monarchs watch.

Westminster Abbey is a wonderful place to envelop yourself in English history.