Westminster Abbey
— — a thousand years of coronations, kept in stone.
Not only on a wall.
“Westminster Abbey has crowned every English monarch since William the Conqueror in 1066. The building you see today is mostly the work of Henry III, begun in 1245 and added to for centuries after. Inside, the floor is uneven with the slabs of seventeen kings and queens. Chaucer is here, Newton is here, Dickens is here. The light through the rose window changes hour by hour. The choir still sings every weekday at evensong.
Westminster Abbey, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Westminster Abbey stands on the north bank of the Thames, beside the Houses of Parliament in central London. A Benedictine monastery was founded on the site in the tenth century; the church Edward the Confessor consecrated in 1065 was rebuilt by Henry III in the Gothic style from 1245. The Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, answering directly to the Crown rather than to any diocese. It has hosted every coronation of an English or British monarch since 1066, and sixteen royal weddings, the most recent in 2011.
The Abbey nave rises to 31 metres, the tallest Gothic vault in England. The stone is a mix of Reigate sandstone, Caen limestone, and Purbeck marble; centuries of London soot blackened the exterior until a long cleaning began in the 1990s. The Henry VII Lady Chapel, finished in 1519, holds a fan-vaulted ceiling the historian John Leland called 'the wonder of the entire world.' Poets' Corner, in the south transept, began with Chaucer's reburial in 1556 and now holds more than a hundred writers.
The Abbey is open to visitors Monday through Saturday; entry is timed and tickets run about £29 in 2026. Sunday and most holy days are reserved for worship, which is free to attend. Evensong is sung daily by the Abbey Choir at 5 pm on weekdays and 3 pm on Sundays. Visitors can walk the cloisters, the Chapter House, and the medieval Pyx Chamber. The Coronation Chair, made for Edward I in 1296, sits in St. George's Chapel inside the Abbey.