The Queen has unveiled the foundation stone for a major new project at Westminster Abbey, a place she described as “very special”.
Camilla returned to the site of the King Charles III Sacristy, which aims to transform the welcome offered to millions of visitors, and marvelled at the concrete floor covering the preserved skeletal remains of ancient burials she had seen previously.
In an impromptu speech to the project’s donors, supporters and the Abbey’s chapter, the Queen spoke about her visit last autumn in her role as patron of the £13 million project.
She said: “I just want to say how delighted I am to unveil this foundation stone, I can’t believe the last time I was here – there’s now a floor – the last time I came here there were quite a lot of skeletons.
“I just hope that in 2026 when it’s due to finish, God willing my husband and I will be back here again to open the King Charles III Sacristy.”
Among the guests were Thomas van Straubenzee, godfather to the Prince of Wales’s daughter Princess Charlotte, Paul Ramsbottom chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, and venture capitalist Matt Cohler.
The building is being constructed on the footprint of Henry III’s medieval Great Sacristy built in the 1250s close to the Abbey walls, and after the unveiling the Queen told the project’s architect Ptolemy Dean: “It’s full speed ahead.”
The development is near to the Abbey’s north transept, used as the current visitor entrance, and will allow the public to follow a path around the perimeter of the building and enter via the Abbey’s Great West Door – the ceremonial entrance used for royal weddings, funerals and coronations for centuries.
The Sacristy will house a state-of-the-art welcome, security and ticketing facilities, allowing the Abbey itself to be preserved as a sacred space with chairs and other objects stored in the new building and not in the Abbey.
At one point as Camilla met Abbey staff within the place of worship she told the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle: “I love this place, it’s just very special.”
The Queen also chatted to broadcaster and TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh, an ambassador for the project, and said about her first visit to the site: “It was full of skeletons, it was quite spooky – wasn’t it?”
Titchmarsh said later: “It’s such an exciting development and the fact it’s going to free up space in here and put this back to a fully functioning place of worship (is important).
“It will add to the experience, that everybody will be able to come in the west door – you will stand yards away from the coronation chair.”
