Camilla tours site of new Westminster Abbey building
Queen Camilla has toured the site of a new building at Westminster Abbey which aims to transform the welcome offered to millions of visitors.
Camilla is patron of the 13 million pound ($A25 million) project to create the King Charles III Sacristy, which will serve as a gathering place on major state occasions and house state-of-the-art welcome, ticketing and security facilities.
After visiting the site and viewing a model of the building, she said: “I can’t wait to see the final version.”
Work is due to begin early next year and the building will be constructed on the footprint of Henry III’s medieval Great Sacristy built in the 1250s.
The Queen was met by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, who, along with the architect behind the project, Ptolemy Dean, showed her some of the archaeological finds already made, including dozens of ancient burials.
Camilla appeared fascinated when the skeletons were pointed out and, after looking at one area of the site, said: “I thought I could see a bone – it’s a thigh bone.”
The development is close to the Abbey’s north transept, used as the current visitor entrance, and will allow the public to follow a path around the perimeter of the building and enter via the Abbey’s Great West Door – the ceremonial entrance used for royal weddings, funerals and coronations for centuries.
“This building will be transformational,” Hoyle, the Abbey’s Surveyor of the Fabric, said.
“At the moment 10 per cent of our area in the Abbey is wasted, with storage and items all over the place.
“We’ll be able to get all of that stuff in our new building, all the detritus and visitor clutter, and people buying tickets and picking up tickets and sound guides, all of that will move into the new building.”
Built in the 1250s and an integral part of Henry III’s church, the Sacristy was where the monks kept vestments, altar linens and other artefacts needed for their daily worship, allowing the Abbey itself to be preserved in all its wonder as a sacred space.
The new building will be designed in sympathy with the Abbey’s Gothic architecture, with the project scheduled to be completed in 2026.
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