Architecture!!

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Westminster was origianlly a Benedictine monastery, refounded as a Collegiate Church of St.Peter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1560. The present building dates mainly from the reign of King Henry III. In 1245 he pulled down the eastern part of the 11th century Abbey, which had been founded by King Edward the Confessor and dedicated in 1065.  It's said that King Henry's devotion to St. Edward later caused him to build a more magnificent church in the newest Gothic style, and also to provide a new shrine for St. Edward so that, Henry himself could be buried. A roomy area between the high altar and the beginning of the quire was to provide a ‘theatre’ where coronations could take place.

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