900 years

"Over the past nine centuries Westminster Abbey has experienced a process of change. Though its structure and contents have been transformed considerably since the first stones were laid at the time of its foundation by Edward the Confessor in the mid eleventh century, the overall design as well as the topography of river, palace and church are recognizably the same today. This loyalty to an established identity, together with essential repairs, changes of taste and of purpose - these are the key elements of the concept of 'Restoration' which this catalogue, and the exhibition it accompanies,…