The choir screen and the nave at Westminster Abbey.
I said it last year and I'll say it again...I love being in Westminster Abbey. It simply possesses so much history that you can't help but feel you're in the presence of something special. And the building itself is nothing to scorn either. It's a wonderful place in which to lose oneself.
While the building still possesses all of the tradition and majesty it has always had, some things have changed. No longer do visitors enter through the west doors. Instead, you have to go in through the north door. And it now costs £5 (£3 for students) to get into the church. In the past, you only had to pay if you wanted to get to the areas behind the choir screen.
What the Abbey's web page won't tell you is that they are open from 6 p.m. until 7:45 p.m each Wednesday night. Not only is that the only time that picture taking is allowed in the Abbey, but, it's also half price to enter. Be aware that a lot of people are aware of these (unwritten) hours, so the line can be long to enter (especially with the new entrance policy). While you shouldn't skip the Abbey just because you aren't there on a Wednesday night, you should probably try to be there at this time if you are in London on a Wednesday.
I got there at 6:20 p.m. and was confronted with a rather large line.
Twenty minutes later, I was inside the Abbey. "No problem", I
thought, "I still have almost an hour in here." Well at 5 'til
7, a voice announced throughout the Abbey that the building would be closing
at 7 p.m. because of "poor lighting conditions within the Abbey."
I still don't know what that meant because it seemed bright enough to me.
But, I took them seriously. I ran around for the last five minutes getting
pictures of things that I previously didn't have. While I could've stayed
there longer, I'm just happy I got to spend a little time inside of it.
Get your own Free Home Page
