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Westminster Abbey: the coronation church and its tombs

William the Conqueror was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066, and so was every English and British monarch after him. It is also the nearest thing the country has to a national tomb: more than three thousand people are buried or remembered here.

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Tickets
From £32
Open
Mon to Fri 9:30 to 16:30, Sat 9:00 to 16:00
Closed
Sundays, for visitors
Allow
1½ to 2 hours

London this week

    What to see at Westminster Abbey

    1. The Coronation Chair

      Made for Edward I about 1300 and used at nearly every coronation since. It stands near the west door, scratched with the initials of eighteenth-century schoolboys.

    2. The Lady Chapel of Henry VII

      The fan vault, the banners of the Knights of the Bath over the stalls, and the bronze tomb of Henry VII and his queen by the Florentine sculptor Pietro Torrigiano.

    3. Poets' Corner

      Chaucer was buried here in 1400, and writers have followed him ever since: Dickens, Hardy and Tennyson lie under the floor, and Shakespeare, Austen and the Brontës have memorials.

    4. The royal tombs

      Elizabeth I and Mary I share one tomb. Round the shrine of Edward the Confessor lie Henry III, Edward I, Edward III and Richard II.

    5. The nave

      By the west door is the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, a soldier brought back from France in 1920, the one grave in the abbey nobody walks on. Newton, Darwin and Stephen Hawking are buried further along.

    6. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries

      A museum in the gallery high above the floor, opened in 2018, with the best view down the length of the church. It needs its own ticket, bought with the entry.

    Tickets and tours for Westminster Abbey

    • Sold by GetYourGuide

      London: Westminster Abbey Entrance Ticket

      Entry to Westminster Abbey, with the audio guide.

      Included

      • Entry to Westminster Abbey
      • The audio guide
      • The cloisters and the Chapter House

      From

      £32

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    Visiting Westminster Abbey: hours and admission

    Opening hours

    Monday to Friday
    9:30 to 16:30, last entry 15:30
    Saturday
    9:00 to 16:00, last entry 15:00
    Sunday
    Open for services only
    • These are the usual hours. The abbey is a working church and they are often shorter: on the day this was read, visitors were admitted only from 9:30 to noon. The abbey's calendar gives the hours for each date.
    • The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries keep shorter hours of their own.

    Who gets in free

    • Children of 5 and under.
    • Anyone who comes to a service or to pray. The daily services are open to all, without a ticket.

    Getting there

    Tube
    Westminster (Jubilee, District, Circle), five minutes on foot across Parliament Square.
    Tube
    St James's Park (District, Circle), seven minutes on foot.
    On foot
    Fifteen minutes from Trafalgar Square down Whitehall.

    Address

    Westminster Abbey
    20 Dean's Yard
    London SW1P 3PA, United Kingdom

    Entrances

    Visitors go in by the Great North Door, on the side of the abbey that faces Parliament Square. A ticket bought online for a time is shown there. Bags are searched, and large ones are not admitted.

    On the map

    Before you go

    • Visiting hours are short and end in mid-afternoon. On Sundays the abbey is open for worship only.
    • The hours change when there is a service or a state occasion. Check the day on the abbey's site before you go.
    • An audio guide is included in the ticket and is good. Allow an hour and a half with it.
    • To hear the building as it was meant to be heard, come to Evensong in the late afternoon. It is free, and you sit in the choir stalls.
    • The cloisters and the Chapter House, with its medieval tiled floor, are part of the visit and are often missed.

    A shrine for a saint, and a church for the crown

    The church you see was begun in 1245 by Henry III, who pulled down an older abbey to build a Gothic one in the French manner, with the highest nave in England. He meant it as a shrine for the saint-king Edward the Confessor, whose tomb still stands behind the high altar.

    At the east end is the chapel Henry VII added, finished about 1516, under a stone ceiling carved into hanging fans so fine that it looks like lace. Elizabeth I lies in one of its aisles, in the same tomb as her half-sister Mary, and Mary, Queen of Scots, in the other.

    The abbey is still used for what it was built for. Elizabeth II was married, crowned and mourned here, and Charles III was crowned here on 6 May 2023, seated in a wooden chair made about 1300.

    Westminster Abbey: common questions

    What are the opening hours of Westminster Abbey?
    Monday to Friday: 9:30 to 16:30, last entry 15:30. Saturday: 9:00 to 16:00, last entry 15:00. Sunday: Open for services only. These are the usual hours. The abbey is a working church and they are often shorter: on the day this was read, visitors were admitted only from 9:30 to noon. The abbey's calendar gives the hours for each date. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries keep shorter hours of their own.
    Is Westminster Abbey ever free?
    Children of 5 and under. Anyone who comes to a service or to pray. The daily services are open to all, without a ticket.
    What does the ticket include?
    Entry to Westminster Abbey. The audio guide. The cloisters and the Chapter House. It is sold by GetYourGuide.
    Who is buried in Westminster Abbey?
    Thirty kings and queens, among them Edward the Confessor, Henry III, Henry VII, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, and many of the country's writers and scientists: Chaucer, Dickens, Newton, Darwin and Stephen Hawking.
    Can you visit Westminster Abbey on a Sunday?
    Not as a sightseer. On Sundays the abbey is open for services only, which anyone may attend without a ticket.
    How long does a visit to Westminster Abbey take?
    About an hour and a half with the audio guide, and two hours if you add the Jubilee Galleries and the cloisters.

    What visitors say about Westminster Abbey

    Rating from Google

    4.6

    52,803 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 8 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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