Westminster Abbey Virtual Tour: The Official Online Options

Short answer: yes, Westminster Abbey has an official virtual tour. It is a 360-degree tour made with Google Street View, opened on the Abbey’s website and also in Google Maps, and it shows the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the High Altar, the Coronation Chair and the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. The Abbey adds four themed virtual tours for schools.

The Abbey’s official online tours

The Abbey’s virtual tours sit in the Learning section of its website. There are five:

• Main virtual tour (overview): the Abbey describes it as “a 360 degree journey around the nation’s coronation church”. It shows treasures “in unprecedented detail”, including the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, the High Altar and the Coronation Chair.
• Worship and daily life: an RE tour for KS2 and KS3 pupils, exploring 12 objects that have played a part in the Abbey’s worship.
• Monarchy: a History tour for KS3 pupils, covering 13 objects linked to royal marriages, burials and coronations.
• The Abbey and national memory: a Citizenship tour for KS2 pupils about 18 people or groups commemorated in the Abbey.
• Building Westminster Abbey: a STEAM tour for KS2 pupils on shape, symmetry and architecture.

KS2 and KS3 are stages of the English school curriculum, so the themed tours are written for teachers and pupils. Schools that cannot visit can also book “virtual classrooms” with the Abbey’s Learning Officers.

360-degree views and videos

The 360-degree views come from Google Street View. The Abbey announced the tour on 7 July 2016, and it is available both on the Abbey’s site and in Google Maps. The Abbey said the tour also takes in memorials to seventeen kings and queens and to writers, scientists, musicians and politicians.

Dean John Hall explained the aim at launch: to reach young people “and others, who cannot for the time being visit the Abbey”. The overview tour now on the Abbey’s site credits Striking Places as its maker.

What a virtual tour cannot show you

A screen cannot give you the scale or the sound. The nave vault is 102 feet (31 metres) high, according to Wikipedia, and photos flatten that height. You also miss the hourly prayer said across the Abbey, the organ, and a sung service in the quire.

Some places are worth the trip because they are hard to photograph at all:

• The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, more than 16 metres (52 feet) above the floor, where photography is not allowed.
• St Faith’s Chapel, also a no-photography zone.
• The Shrine of St Edward the Confessor, which you can see online but which is closed to general visitors except for worship and some tours. Photography is banned there too.

Evensong is a good example of what only a visit gives you. It is free, and the Abbey’s usual pattern is 5:00pm on most weekdays; see our Evensong guide.

Planning a real visit from the virtual tour

Use the virtual tour to decide what you want to see in person, then plan your route. The Abbey’s suggested one-hour route covers the nave, the quire, the High Altar, the royal tombs, the Lady Chapel and Poets’ Corner. Our Westminster Abbey map lays it out.

A few practical points the virtual tour will not tell you:

• Tickets: £32 for adults on the Abbey’s own site (about $43), £14 for children 6 to 17. The Galleries are an extra £5 timed ticket.
• Audio: the multimedia guide is included, and you can download a shortened version to your phone before you go.
• The Shrine: the Abbey’s verger-led tours, at the entry price plus £10, include areas not open to general visitors, such as the Shrine.

If you want a guide to bring the stories to life on the day, book a skip-the-line guided tour of Westminster Abbey, from $100, rated 4.9 from 549 reviews of this tour on GetYourGuide. To compare all options, see the best Westminster Abbey tours.