Westminster Abbey: free audio guide, tickets and opening times

Westminster Abbey is London’s coronation church: 40 monarchs have been crowned here since 1066, and 30 kings and queens are buried inside. The Gothic church you see was begun by Henry III in 1245. A standard adult ticket costs £31 (October 2026) and includes the official multimedia guide. This free audio guide is the warm-up: play it outside, in front of the west front, before you join the queue.

What the Westminster Abbey audio guide covers

The audio guide runs for about 3 minutes. It is made to be heard standing outside, with the 2 west towers above you: it gives you the story in one go, so that inside you know where to look. These are its stops:

Westminster Abbey tickets and prices in 2026

These are the general admission prices listed by the Abbey, as checked on 1 October 2026:

The ticket covers the church, the Cloisters, the Chapter House and the Pyx Chamber (and College Garden on weekdays), plus the multimedia guide in 14 languages. You can pick up a device on arrival or download a shorter version to your phone; bring headphones if you do. Serving UK Armed Forces personnel and, until 30 September 2027, NHS staff also go free.

It is free to enter only for worship: there is no charge to attend a daily service, and you go in through the Great West Door; photography is not allowed during services. To see the Coronation Chair, the royal tombs and Poets’ Corner, you need a ticket.

Booking ahead is highly recommended by the Abbey: on busy days the queue can go past an hour, and timed tickets booked online get fast-track entry.

Opening times: check the exact day (October 2026)

Westminster Abbey is a working church, so visiting hours change with the services, and the Abbey publishes them day by day. This is the October 2026 calendar as checked on 1 October. The times are entry times:

What to see inside: the Coronation Chair and the royal tombs

Every coronation since 1066 has taken place here, along with 16 royal weddings. The church you walk through is the one Henry III began rebuilding in 1245 out of devotion to St Edward the Confessor, whose shrine stands just behind the High Altar. Its vault is the highest Gothic vault in England, at nearly 102 feet.

The Coronation Chair is the piece most people come for. Edward I had it made to hold the Stone of Destiny, the ancient symbol of Scotland’s monarchy that he captured in 1296, and since Edward II in 1308, 26 monarchs have been crowned sitting on it. It is the oldest piece of furniture in the UK still used for its original purpose. Look closely: the 4 gilt lions at its feet were added in the early 16th century, and the back still carries graffiti carved by Westminster schoolboys and visitors in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In front of the High Altar lies the Cosmati pavement, laid in 1268 on Henry III’s orders by craftsmen from Rome: a square 7.58 metres across, made of coloured stone and glass, in which no two roundels are the same.

At the east end, the Henry VII Lady Chapel (begun 1503, consecrated 1516) has a fan-vaulted ceiling with carved pendants, and 15 kings and queens are buried in it. In the north aisle, Elizabeth I shares a tomb with her half-sister Mary I, the Protestant and the Catholic side by side; Mary Queen of Scots lies in the south aisle. The colourful banners belong to the Knights of the Order of the Bath, installed in this chapel since 1725. Across the whole Abbey, 30 kings and queens are buried; the last was George II.

Some spaces stay closed to visitors. In this official video, guide Katie Wignall goes into the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the library and archives, and the Jerusalem Chamber, where Henry IV died:

Poets’ Corner, the Unknown Warrior and the Chapter House

In the south transept, more than 100 poets and writers are buried or remembered, from Shakespeare and Jane Austen to the Brontë sisters and Charles Dickens. The first was Geoffrey Chaucer, in 1400, and not because he was a poet: he was buried here as Clerk of the King’s Works. Nearly 200 years later Edmund Spenser asked to lie near him, and a tradition began that continues today. The Dean of Westminster decides who receives a place.

One grave has no name. On 11 November 1920 an unidentified British serviceman from the First World War, the Unknown Warrior, was buried here, and the grave was filled with earth brought from France. The black Belgian marble stone dates from 1921. In all, more than 3,300 people are buried in the Abbey.

The ticket also takes you into the Chapter House (around 1246-1255), an octagon 18 metres across inside, with a single central pillar fanning out into the vault. The King’s Great Council met here in 1257, effectively the beginning of the English Parliament. In the passage leading to it is the oldest door in Britain, from the 1050s, dated by tree-ring analysis in 2005. In the Cloisters, the Pyx Chamber, built around 1070, still has 11th-century tiles.

High above the floor, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries fill the 13th-century triforium with more than 300 objects and a view over the whole Abbey. You reach them through the Weston Tower, next to Poets’ Corner, by lift or up 108 steps. They need a separate timed ticket on top of general admission, and in October 2026 they are closed on Monday 26.

Getting there, accessibility and what you can bring

The nearest Tube station is Westminster (Jubilee, District and Circle lines), about 300 metres or a 4-minute walk; St James’s Park (District and Circle) is about 500 metres away. By train, Charing Cross is about 1,100 metres away and Waterloo about 1,400. There is no car park. The address is 20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA.

The Abbey is accessible for wheelchair users, and wheelchairs can be borrowed on arrival, subject to availability, with no need to book. The wheelchair-accessible entrance is the North Door, facing Parliament Square. A hearing loop covers the main building, there are accessible toilets in the Cloisters, and the Galleries have a lift; the Henry VII Lady Chapel (12 steps) and the Chapter House have steps.

Want a first look before you go? This is the Abbey’s own short introduction:

Combine it with other London audio guides

The Abbey is a natural first stop for a walk around Westminster. The Palace of Westminster, close by, shares its World Heritage listing, granted in 1987. Across the Thames, about 700 metres away, turns the London Eye:

Free audio guideLondon Eye

Head west for about 1 km and you reach Buckingham Palace:

Free audio guideBuckingham Palace

From there, Hyde Park is about 1.7 km to the north-west, and the British Museum is about 2.2 km north of the Abbey. All our free audio guides for the city are in London.