Westminster Abbey in the Reformation and Civil War

Great stones, greater storms: the Abbey bent with the winds and stood.

Key Phases

• Tudor Reformation: monastic life ends; collegiate church status emerges.
• Commonwealth era: iconoclasm threats, adaptive uses, selective protections.
• Restoration: liturgy revives; fabric repairs slowly follow.

Visiting Tips

• Look for tracers of damage and repair in statues and glass.
• Exhibits often narrate these turbulent decades.

Bottom Line

Institutions survive by adapting—Westminster is proof in stone.