Cheyneygates is an ideal venue for meetings and lectures,
up to 50 people and receptions for up to 100 on a daily basis.
The Library area of these rooms may also be available on
occasions for a Board meeting or small dinner parties. The rooms are accessible by a long flight of stairs. Therefore, they are not suitable for anyone with restricted mobility or who require wheelchair access.
The two rooms known as Cheyneygates which stand
over the entrance to the cloisters of Westminster
Abbey were originally part of the Abbot’s house of
the Benedictine monastery.
In 1486 Cheyneygates was leased to Edward IV’s queen,
Elizabeth Woodville, although she only lived
there for a few months. She had twice sought
sanctuary at Westminster (her son Edward V
was born there), and later it was probably
from Cheyneygates that she was persuaded to allow her
younger son Richard, Duke of York, to join his brother in
the Tower of London. Henry VII often dined with Abbot Islip
here, and it was in these rooms that Sir Thomas More was
kept in custody before his removal to the Tower.
After the Reformation the Abbot’s House became
the Deanery and in the 19th century Cheyneygates was
used as the Dean’s study. In 1941, however, the Deanery and Cheyneygates were badly damaged.
The rooms were subsequently rebuilt and a new
staircase was constructed from the cloisters below.
The large outer room is dominated by a Flemish ‘flowers
and vases’ tapestry of late l6th or early 17th century date,
believed to have been given to the Abbey by Sir Paul Pindar
(d. 1650), a wealthy Royalist. Among the paintings are two
views of the Abbey dated about 1735 and depicting proposed
designs for a central cupola and additions to the west towers,
neither of which were carried out. Both also show the houses
which once stood along the north side of the Abbey. An
interior view, also 18th century, provides a rare depiction of
the 13th century choir stalls (destroyed in the 1770s) and of
the organ in its original position.
Meetings and lectures: up to 50 people
Receptions: up to 100 people
Dinners: up to 12 people