The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, Westminster Abbey

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries will be opened in summer 2018 in the church’s medieval triforium, an internal gallery which runs 70 feet above the floor of the Abbey. Entrance to the space, which has never before been open to the public, will be via a new tower outside Poets’ Corner, opposite the Palace of Westminster. This will be the most significant addition to the Abbey since Nicholas Hawksmoor’s iconic west towers were completed in 1745.

The galleries will display treasures and collections reflecting the Abbey’s rich and varied thousand-year history. They will also give visitors magnificent views to Parliament Square and the Palace of Westminster, as well as wonderful vistas across the Abbey, which the poet John Betjeman described as ‘the finest view in Europe’. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries are the final phase of the Abbey’s development plan, the 2020 Vision, which set an agenda to improve facilities for the Abbey’s two million worshippers and visitors.

This richly illustrated guide, written by specialist Abbey staff, discusses in depth both the overall themes explored in the exhibition and a selection of the individual exhibits.

Co-edited by Curator Susan Jenkins and Librarian Tony Trowles, with contributions from other Abbey personnel.