Photograph of group of people looking at one memorial within Westminster Abbey

Memorial of the month

Learn about the lives and legacies of those remembered in the Abbey and discover how people from all walks of life have ended up in the nation's church.

Join a member of staff at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours for a 10-minute talk about one of the thousands of memorials or graves that can be found around the Abbey. Please be aware this offer can be subject to cancellation at short notice.

These talks are available to those with a ticket to visit Westminster Abbey.

Aphra Behn was one of the most significant writers of the Restoration period and one of the first English women to earn a living through her writing. Her plays, poetry and prose engage with politics, gender, power and social expectation in ways that still resonate today.  

Her burial provides an opportunity to reflect on memory and absence at Westminster Abbey, inviting visitors to examine whose voices have historically been celebrated and to think why are there no women writers buried in Poets’ Corner. 

Join a member of the Abbey team for a short 10-minute talk exploring Aphra Behn’s legacy and what her burial in the cloisters can tell us about literary memory, gender and social history. 

Talks will take place at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours. We will meet in Poets’ Corner. 

Drawing of Aphra Behn, who is buried within the cloisters of Westminster Abbey