Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey Streetscape Improvements

The City Council is legally bound under 'The City of Westminster (Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter) Scheme 1901' to maintain, or pay for the maintenance of, the areas around Westminster Abbey known as 'The Close', which includes The Sanctuary, The Archway and Dean's Yard. The 1901 Order also transferred all sewers within this area to the Mayor, Alderman and Councillors of the City of Westminster for the purposes of maintenance.

The aim of this scheme is to renovate all the paving materials using natural stone, widen the footway in The Sanctuary, raise the vehicular acccess to footway level in The Archway and reconstruct the carriageway around Dean's Yard to eliminate the existing surface deficiencies.

The overall objective is to upgrade the public realm at the site to a quality appropriate of the World Heritage Site status bestowed upon Westminster Abbey.

The works have been substantially completed in February 2010. The carriageway resurfacing of The Sanctuary has been delayed due to proposed gas upgrade works by National Grid Gas. It is anticipated that this will be completed by March 2011.

Westminster Abbey's proposed streetscape improvements works will entail five planned phases. For details of each phase of theseworks please click  here.