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.
William Wilberforce, a leading politician in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, is remembered as a great reformer at the centre of a much wider movement for the abolition of the slave trade. His memorial in the Abbey offers an opportunity for us to think about how national memory is shaped and ask who is remembered and whose voices are missing.
Join a member of the Abbey team for a short 10-minute talk exploring the legacy of Wilberforce and what it reveals about power, reform and remembrance at Westminster Abbey and beyond.
Talks will take place at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours, except for Thursday the 12th of February. We will meet in Poets’ Corner.
Eleanor of Castile, queen consort of Edward I, played an important role in the political and dynastic life of thirteenth-century England. She is remembered not only as an influential medieval queen, but also through the legacy of royal mourning and memorialisation associated with her death, in particular, the Eleanor Crosses.
Her legacy is often overlooked compared to her husband, which invites us to consider how medieval queens are remembered differently from kings, and how places like the Abbey help shape that legacy.
Join a member of the Abbey team for a short 10-minute talk exploring Eleanor of Castile’s place in royal history and what her remembrance can tell us about power and memory at Westminster Abbey.
Talks will take place at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours, except for the 7th of April and the 23rd of April. We will meet in Poets’ Corner.
Writing in a period marked by civil war, revolution and restoration of the English monarchy, John Milton’s works engage deeply with questions of faith, politics, liberty and authority. Milton’s life and legacy also offer a powerful lens for discussing disability history. He became blind later in life and continued to produce some of his greatest work, including Paradise Lost.
Join a member of the Abbey team for a short 10-minute talk exploring Milton and how his life and writing explore themes of faith, politics and disability.
Talks will take place at 10:30am every Tuesday and Thursday during visitor opening hours. We will meet in Poets’ Corner.
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.
