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Where the books were written, set, sold, printed and buried: from the Globe to the graves, the bookshops to the presses.
This season's book talks, festivals and exhibitions are in What's On: Books & writers
The south transept of the Abbey, where English literature has buried and remembered itself since Chaucer.
Statues & memorialsGravesGo inside
Chaucer was buried here in 1400 because he had been a royal clerk, and the tomb put up for him in 1556 turned the corner into a habit: Spenser was laid beside him in 1599 with other poets throwing elegies and their pens into the grave, and Dryden, Johnson, Dickens, Browning, Tennyson, Hardy and Kipling followed. Those buried elsewhere are remembered on the walls and floor, from Shakespeare's Scheemakers statue and the memorials to Milton, Blake, Keats and Shelley to Jane Austen, the Brontës, Dylan Thomas and Philip Larkin. Handel lies among them, and beneath the floor Chaucer's own grey tomb is the plainest thing in the transept.
| Monday | 09:30 – 15:30 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 09:30 – 15:30 |
| Wednesday | 09:30 – 15:30 |
| Thursday | 09:30 – 15:30 |
| Friday | 09:30 – 15:30 |
| Saturday | 09:30 – 15:00 |
| Sunday | Closed |
Hours from the page that lists them, checked 5 September 2026.
Last entry times; Sunday is for services only.
Submit a correction for this listing.
Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.