TO BE CLEANED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 5

TO BE CLEANED

TOWER OF THE ABBEY

The south-west tower of Westminster Abbey is to be cleaned, and scaffolding

is being erected on the south' side, says the "Daily Telegraph."

With the exception, of the upper stages,'the tower dates from about the year 1500. The storeys above the roof of the church were added in the eighteenth century from designs by Sir Christopher Wren, but the work was not completed until, over twenty years after Wren's death.

Even then they were not exactly

as. he had recommended, for he suggested that steeples should be built on the top of them. He also had proposed the erection of a steeple over the crossing in the centre of the church.

During the Commonwealth, Brad-

Shaw, the regicide, occupied the upper room of the part of the South-West Tower built in 1500. The room still has a fireplace, now somewhat damaged, before which he-must often have sat. The room can be approached either from the triforium, ■or by means of a spiral staircase. '■. THE WARRIORS' CHAPEL. The lower room of the tower was once the seat of the consistory, but a few years ago it was furnished as the Warriors' Chapel. An altar has been place*! against the ancient screen on the eastern side, and above it a beautiful, canopied reredos, which is brilliant with gilding and colour. There are also gilded bronzes of the Crucifixion, with the Virgin and St. John on either side. All has been designed in the true medieval fashion,.

There was originally an altar here, which was destroyed during the Commonwealth. Until Dr. Foxley-Norris decided to restore it, the former chapel was encumbered with modern monuments. Several of these have been removed to more suitable positions.

The upper stages of the, tower have long been the home of pigeons. Up to the. end of^last century hawks, too, were accustomed to' nest there, and to live royally on those birds.

It has lately been discovered that the Abbey's towers rest on the site of towers built by King Edward the Confessor, and portions of the latter still exist underneath the present building.

The Abbey bells now hang in the north-west tower, but in the Middle Ages the belfry was a massive detached building which stood on the site of the present Guildhall. It had walls of immense thickness, and above it rose a tall spire. It was demolished in the eighteenth century.