THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Her Majesty The Queen visited Westminster Abbey on October 3 to see the site of a construction project named for her husband. Called the King Charles III Sacristy, work will begin early 2025 on this, the first new building at the Abbey for many years, with completion planned for 2026.
It will offer a better welcome to the millions of people who come from around the world to enjoy one of the world's great churches, housing state-of-the-art ticketing and security facilities. Currently those are inside the main body of the Abbey along with audio guides and other secular activities. The Sacristy will also serve as a gathering place on state occasions, freeing up the Abbey church for worship and pilgrimage.
The new building has been designed to be sympathetic to the Abbey's Gothic architecture. It will on the site of the medieval sacristy, built in the 1250s by King Henry III when he reconstructed Edward the Confessor's original abbey. It was used to store the monks' vestments, altar linens, and other sacred items. Before that the ground was the site of dozens of burials of monks. Henry's building was reused as residential accommodation but fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1740.
The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, and the project's architect and the Abbey's 'Surveyor of the Fabric', Ptolemy Dean, showed the Queen the site of the new building. She saw some of the monks' graves and was then shown around the Abbey church.
Queen Camilla became the project's Patron in June. The cost is expected to be £13 million and fundraising has begun. If you wish to support the project with a donation go to www.westminster-abbey.org/support-us/make-a-donation
A full article about the Sacristy project will be in the next issue of The American magazine. Make sure you sign up for the free newsletter to be notified when it's published. The digital edition is free to read, or you can subscribe to get the print magazine sent to your door.
