London’s Westminster Cathedral is hundreds of years old, and very new this month, with the opening of a new gallery and viewing area in space that hasn’t been open to the public in 700 years.
And the view is spectacular, as the view above shows. The gallery is located in the triforium, just below the vaulted ceiling. Once limited to stonemasons and maintenance staff, since 1953 it has been the perch for TV commentators and cameramen during royal events, such as Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. It’s being named the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Gallery.
Newly cleaned up and filled with treasures including the ancient rule book for coronations, it’s opening on June 11th. Access is by Westminster’s other new item, a Gothic-styled tower just outside Poets’ Corner of the Abbey. It’s the first addition to the structure in several hundred years, and blends in so well that most Londoners passing it by for months have not realized it was new.
