The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries

Fabulous new museum space at Westminster Abbey built in the triforium high up above the abbey floor.


 
I’d been so excited about this development since I first read about it and it didn’t disappoint. I loved the space, actually built in about 1250 during the reign of Henry III and the views it gave over the inside of the abbey and of the roofs and across Parliament Square and the Houses of Parliament. A new tower had been built to give access to the space with, thank goodness, a lift. I loved the touch that stripes of the different stones used to build the abbey were inserted up the inside of the tower.

The objects in the space were just as stunning! Divided into four themed areas it covers the Abbey and national memory, the building of the Abbey, worship and daily life and the Abbey and the monarchy. You just kept falling over amazing unique things.

I loved the corbel heads with wonderful crisp carving as they’ve never been exposed to the elements. These must be portraits of the workmen and their families. It was wonderful to see the original Hawksmoor drawings for the west front. There was a stunning portrait of Henry VII which was probably by Tornigiano as preparation for his tomb. Oh and of course the wonderful funeral effigies of the Kings and Queens of England from Edwrad II onwards.  I think my favourite item was a capital of the Judgement of Solomon from the original cloisters circa 1050!



I also loved the stories which emerged such as that of an illegitimate daughter of James II whose effigy was the last to be carried at a funeral at the Abbey. She insisted it was dressed in the robes she wore at the Coronation of George II. What a lot she must have seen and I’m annoyed with myself that I forgot to write down her name! Also the wax modeller, Patience Wright, who might have been an American spy!


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