Westminster Abbey Precincts - Great Cloister Garden, Little Cloister Garden

Westminster Abbey and its precincts are probably on the site of an C8th Saxon church dedicated to St Peter built on what was then Thorney Island. There was later a Benedictine settlement here, which became a monastery by the C10th and soon gained royal support. The Danish King Cnut was the first monarch to build his palace by the monastery in the early C11th, and subsequently Edward the Confessor built both Westminster Abbey and his new Palace of Westminster (q.v.) on adjacent land, although he died just after the Abbey was completed in 1066. William the Conqueror also adopted the palace as a royal residence and was crowned at the Abbey. Westminster School originated as a small charity school provided by the abbey's Benedictine monks in c.1179. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the school's continuation was ensured by a statute of Henry VIII of 1540 and it was granted a charter by Elizabeth I in 1560. Although the monastery was dissolved in 1539, Westminster Abbey became the seat of a bishop in 1540 and was designated as a cathedral until Queen Mary was on the throne, when the old religion was restored and the abbey once again had an abbot, together with 15 monks. On Queen Elizabeth I's accession in 1558, a dean and prebendaries were put in place at Westminster Abbey. The Palace of Westminster had become the permanent seat of government in 1512 after Henry VIII moved his residence to the Palace of Whitehall.



This part of Westminster Abbey is run as a burgeoning tourist operation and is visible to the visiting public. The Garth or Great Cloister Garden within the old monastic complex is the centrepiece to the fine gothic arcaded cloister. It once contained a well, and now largely consists of an area of lawn surrounded by the cloisters; the lawn has a diversity of grasses and wildflowers, including species uncommon in central London, and as such is a site of importance for nature conservation. The Little Cloister Garden dates from the C18th; it is surrounded by fine metalwork gates and railings, the central area consisting of a lawn bordered with shrubs and has a central marble fountain set within a square of turf with stone border.