Visit Westminster Abbey with Jeremy Irons

I don’t even know why it took me all those years and four trips to London to finally visit Westminster Abbey, but this January I finally set foot in this majestic church.

From the outside, it’s already such an intriguing building. But the more than thousand years of history are even more impressive. Knowing you’re setting foot in the building where the coronation has been held since 1066 and admiring the historic chair in which it happens every time is almost magical.

We arrived at Westminster Abbey as early as possible in the hopes of beating the crowds. It was on a Friday morning and while it was busy in London there was only a small queue to get in the church. Lucky us!

We picked up our audio guides – which are included in the entrance price – and started the tour of this historical place. We were immediately greeted by the amazing voice of Jeremy Irons (known for his roles in i.a. Die Hard With Vengeance and Kingdom of Heaven) so it was like we were touring this church with him. As if there weren’t already reasons enough to get the audio guide!

No, but seriously, the audio guide is really interesting. You can always opt to get more information on certain areas or objects or you can just move on to the next point of interest of the church. The extra information isn’t too lenghty so it doesn’t get boring at all, but without it, you’d look entirely different at the building and what’s inside. Also, you’d be done pretty quickly and missed out on quite a lot.

All in all we spent about one hour touring the place, getting all the information that interested us. Once you’ve handed back your audio guides, you can go outside to the court and the gardens and last but not least; the coronation chair. It’s mindboggling to know how much history is attached to that one piece of furniture!

You’re not allowed to take pictures inside, so I’m not able to show you any, but you can believe me when I say this place is definitely worth a visit. The history, the beautiful objects and also just the church itself.

Entrance to Westminster Abbey is £20 for an adult (audio guide included). Opening hours are 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. The closest metro stop is ‘Westminster’ (shocker!).

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