The Weston Tower and The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries

 

The Sunday Times called it "A Soaring Success", and the Guardian  said "Nestled into an armpit of Westminster Abbey, hidden behind a flying buttress that leaps up to the chapterhouse, stands what appears to be a gothic space rocket. Sinuous bronze tracery loops its way up the faceted shaft, framing crystalline windows between bands of lead arrowheads, like go-faster stripes shooting towards the heavens."

In October 2019 Sky showed a series called "The Art of Architecture" and I included this on my blog.

Probably my favourite of the series, Episode 5 looked at Ptolemy Dean's Weston Tower at Westminster Abbey. His design for an access stair and lift up to the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries is quite remarkable, blending modern metal and glass alongside the existing building. It respects the vertical aspects of the cathedral and has used sixteen different types of stone cladding to the lift shaft in bands, sampled from the history of the building with the earliest stone at the bottom rising in age to the top. The shape is an intersecting rotated square that looks quite something, with bronze tracery wrapped around the exterior. The glazing is a multiplicity of leaded windows that are extraordinary. The whole effect is amazing. I must pick a nice day to go.

My first visit to London for a long time brought me to the "new" Weston Tower at Westminster Abbey. I say new because that what it was when I saved the article from The Sunday Times nearly four years ago.

It had been on my list of new architecture since before lockdown and yesterday I had brought the ticket on my phone that I had booked a few days ago. Arriving at Westminster Underground to almost misty cloud, I had to walk around the Abbey, almost to the deserted back of the abbey to spot the tower hidden in a corner behind a patch of grass. You have to really search to find it.

And then inside the abbey, I had to ask twice to find the entrance tucked away in a far corner. The Guardian has an excellent piece about tower if you search "Weston Tower".

Some people use the lift but it's far better to take your time going up the staircase and take in the architecture and the views. I didn't see another soul as I made my way to the top.

The Sunday Times article has words from the architect, Ptolemy Dean. The tower is 26.95 metres high and came in at £22.9 Million. There are leaded panes of glass with overlaid tracery instead of plate glass. The timber frame, stairs and landings are all in oak and it looks wonderful.

At the top are the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries, installed in the triforium ( as pace in a church above the central nave situated at high level) at the top of the abbey. 

Apparently John Betjeman called it "the best view in Europe". It is pretty good.

The collection is interesting, but not really what I came for. However this photo I found shows better than mine the wonderful structure of this space.

Here are a some of mine, starting with some stained glass panels from 1250/70.

A roundel of Sir Thomas Lovell attributed to Pietro Torrigiano about 1520.

I went back down in the lift and had time to wander around Westminster Abbey, although it all seemed extremely familiar having been there before. So I headed back to Westminster Underground for the short journey to Embankment, and the walk across the Golden Jubilee Bridge to the South Bank for my afternoon at National Theatre. There I found a Pret A Manger for a wrap and a very welcome cup of tea.