Westminster Abbey
London’s Westminster Abbey is the most famous and significant Gothic church in the United Kingdom. Built starting in the 13th century on the site of an earlier church, it’s a wonderful example of mixed English and French Gothic features. Westminster Abbey is most famous as the site of English royal coronations and weddings, as well as the location of graves and memorials for people like Sir Isaac Newton and Shakespeare. It also has some wonderful gargoyles and grotesques, some of which you can see in this post.
Westminster Abbey has been renovated, restored, and added onto in nearly every phase of its long existence, so it’s a safe bet that these figures date from many different periods, including 21st century examples by English stone carver Simon Smith.
Westminster Palace
Westminster Palace grotesques. Photos (c) Jennifer Wolmarans. Used with permission.
There is also Westminster Palace, perhaps better known as the Houses of Parliament. Unlike Westminster Abbey, Westminster Palace is almost entirely a 19th century Gothic Revival structure, since it replaced the old palace that burnt down in 1834. Sir Charles Barry designed Westminster Palace, and Augustus Pugin designed the Gothic Revival interiors. Here, too, are some lovely grotesques, though not functional gargoyles as best as I can tell.
The photos in this post were taken by fellow gargoyle lover Jennifer Wolmarans, who has been posting a gargoyle or grotesque photo on her Instagram @a_gargoyle_a_day every day for more than two years. If you love gargoyles, I highly recommend following her account or her Flickr page. Thank you so much to Jennifer for letting me use some of her great photos in this post!
