The Jerusalem Chamber is one of two large rooms (the other being the Abbot's
dining hall) added to the lodgings of the medieval abbots of Westminster
by Nicholas de Litlyngton (Abbot from 1362-86). The origin of the name
is uncertain but it was not uncommon in the Middle Ages to assign names
to rooms. Just as here at the Abbey there are ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Jericho’
and ‘Samaria’ so in the medieval Palace of Westminster there
were three rooms called ‘Heaven’, ‘Hell’ and ‘Purgatory’.
Another explanation of the title is that it derives from tapestries (perhaps
depicting the Holy Land) which hung in the room when it was first built.
Jerusalem Chamber is entered from the smaller room known as Jericho Parlour.
This latter room was built by John Islip who was Abbot from 1500 to 1532.
The panelling here is original (early sixteenth century) and is of the
type called ‘linenfold’. In the window of Jericho are some quarries
of glass bearing Abbot Islip’s rebus or pun ‘I slip’ or
‘Eye and a Slip’.
The roof of Jerusalem is original, although it has been restored; on
the timbers you can see Abbot Litlyngton’s initials under a mitre
and a crowned letter R for Richard II in whose reign the room was built.
The panelling, copied from that in Jericho, was added in the nineteenth
century by Dean Stanley and is made of cedar wood from Lebanon.
The tapestries are of varied provenance. Some are part of a series depicting
the History of Abraham, woven in France in the sixteenth century, and
of which other parts may be seen at Hampton Court. These were at one time
hung around the Sanctuary in the Abbey for great occasions, and then were
cut to fit the spaces in the Chamber. Above the door and to the right
of it as you come in are fragments depicting the return of Sarah from
Egypt; at the far end of the room on the left is the Circumcision of Isaac.
Opposite this is a seventeenth-century tapestry of Rebekah at the well.
On the left of the door is the only complete tapestry. It was made in
England by a weaver using a Flemish mark in the late seventeenth century
it depicts Peter healing the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple,
and is based on a design by Raphael.
Most of the stonework of the fireplace is original but the top dates
from the time of Dean Foxley Norris (1925-37). The shields which may be
seen there are, from left to right those of Abbot Litlyngton, Edward the
Confessor, the medieval Abbey of Westminster, King Henry IV (or V) and
Dean Norris. Beside this fire took place what is, perhaps the best known
event in the room’s history: the death of King Henry IV. In 1413
the King was planning to go to the Holy Land, and when praying at St.
Edward’s Shrine he was taken ill, apparently with a stroke. He was
brought to the Abbot’s house and placed by the fire where he recovered
consciousness. King Henry asked where he was and was told Jerusalem. The
chronicle relates that the King realized he was going to die because it
had been prophesied that he would die in Jerusalem. In Henry IV, Part
II, Shakespeare tells this story of the King’s death and also has
Pnnce Henry trying on the crown while his father lay dying. The two plaster
busts represent Henry V and Henry IV. The latter is copied from the effigy
on the King’s tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.
After the Benedictine Monastery had been dissolved the Abbot’s House,
including Jerusalem Chamber, was granted to the Bishop of Westminster
(1540-50). Later on this house became the Deanery and it was here in 1624
that John Williams, Dean of Westminster and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal,
entertained the French Ambassadors who had come to arrange the future
Charles I’s marriage with Henrietta Maria. Dean Williams commemorated
this event by adding the present overmantel (fireplace).
In Jerusalem Chamber many historic meetings have been held: the committees
engaged on translating the Authorized Version of the Bible in 1611, the
Revised Version in 1870, the New English Bible in 1961 and the Revised
English Bible in 1989. The Chamber was also the meeting place of the Westminster
Assembly, the committee of divines appointed by Parliament in 1643 to
reform the Church of England. Among the documents to emerge from the Assembly
was the Westminster Confessional which was to be the definitive doctrinal
statement of English presbyterianism.
The minutes of the Assembly are preserved at Dr William's Library, 14
Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0AG.
The bodies of many famous people, for example, Joseph Addison, Sir Isaac
Newton, and William Congreve, have lain here before being buried in the
Abbey.
The Chamber, which is one of the private rooms of the Deanery, is now
used for meetings of the Dean and Chapter (the Chapter House still being
in the hands of the Crown), and for private gatherings and receptions
as arranged or permitted by the Dean. It is not open to the public.
Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey 2003