History of the Chapter House and Pyx Chamber, Westminster Abbey
The Chapter House and Pyx Chamber are two beautifully preserved medieval rooms on the east side of the Westminster Abbey cloister. This was where the monks lived and worked when not attending services in the abbey church. During the Middle Ages and afterwards, the two spaces were sometimes put to secular uses – parliaments were held in the Chapter House, and valuables and important documents were stored in both. Because state use continued until the 19th century, these rooms were managed separately from the abbey, and since 1984 they have been the responsibility of English Heritage.
The 11th century: the Pyx Chamber
There has been an abbey dedicated to St Peter at Westminster since long before the Norman Conquest: tradition places its foundation in the 7th century. It is certain that around 1045, King Edward the Confessor began to rebuild its church on a monumental scale, in an architectural style derived from Normandy, where he had lived in exile for many years. This church was dedicated in December 1065, days before his death. At Christmas 1066, it hosted the coronation of the Norman conqueror as King William I.
The addition of a cloister to the south of the church probably began before 1066 and continued through the second half of the 11th century. This saw the construction of the Pyx Chamber as part of the undercroft (basement) beneath the monks’ dormitory. Despite later changes, its architecture is distinctively 11th-century, with a squat cylindrical column supporting round-headed ‘groin vaults’, divided by simple stone ribs. The room, now roughly square in plan, was originally part of a long, vaulted cellar, but partition walls were inserted in the 12th century and subsequently.
The stone altar in the north-eastern bay was added in the 13th century, when the Pyx Chamber briefly contained a chapel or alternatively a sacristy (where vestments and sacred vessels used in church services were stored). This was not the original intention, however, and from the later 13th century the room was again used for secular purposes.
The name ‘Pyx’ denotes a small box. Pyxes containing samples of newly minted coinage were traditionally kept in this room, before being tested for purity in a ceremony called ‘The Trial of the Pyx’.
Henry III’s Chapter House
The Chapter House was built in the mid 13th century, as part of the great reconstruction of the abbey ordered by King Henry III (reigned 1216–72).
In a reflection of the king’s tastes, the Chapter House was a spectacular concept. Octagonal in plan, it echoed polygonal buildings characteristic of England, but in a Gothic style heavily influenced by French architecture, notably the royal Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and Amiens Cathedral. The building was immediately hailed as ‘beyond compare’. Its influence can be seen in other cathedral chapter houses, notably Salisbury and Wells, built soon after.
The Chapter House was built for the monks’ daily meetings – called ‘chapters’ because they included the reading of a chapter of St Benedict’s Rule. However, Henry III’s ambitions for it were greater: he imagined it also as a ‘stage’ from which he could address his subjects in fitting splendour. His own arms appeared prominently in the magnificent tiled pavement and in the vast medieval stained-glass windows (now replaced), and in 1259 he ordered the manufacture of a lectern specifically for his own use (additional to the lectern used by the monks).
The Chapter House was thoroughly restored in the 19th century, when some details such as the sculpture above the door and the steep roof were incorrectly re-created. However, it still gives striking insights into the mind of the abbey’s greatest royal patron.
“As the rose is the flower of flowers, so is this the house of houses”
Inscription in the tiled pavement of the Chapter House
(Latin: Ut rosa flos florum sic est domus ista domorum)
Image: One of the Chapter House floor tiles, depicting Edward the Confessor (right) giving a ring to St John, who is disguised as a pilgrim. Henry III was devoted to St Edward, and rebuilt the abbey to adorn his shrine
The Royal Treasury and the Burglary of 1303
From the late 1260s, Westminster Abbey was pressed into another type of use separate from the religious life of the monks: the safe storage of royal treasure. This included crowns, coinage, ‘jewels and plate’ and miscellaneous other items of royal property.
The monks were already custodians of the coronation regalia, believed to be relics of St Edward the Confessor, so the safeguarding of other crowns may have seemed a logical extension of this function. The royal treasure was under the supervision of royal clerks rather than the monks, and was held in the basement of the Chapter House and in the Pyx Chamber.
A national scandal erupted in summer 1303 when one of these treasuries, probably the Pyx Chamber, was found to have been burgled. Investigations identified the leading culprit as Richard Pudlicote, who claimed to have broken through the stone wall from outside the building over four months. It is likely that he was abetted by officials in the adjacent Palace of Westminster, and possibly by the monks; the abbot, 48 monks and 32 servants were initially imprisoned on suspicion, but were eventually released. Pudlicote was hanged for his crime in 1305.
A second timber door was added to the Pyx Chamber to strengthen it , and it remained a royal treasury until at least the early 17th century.
Read more about the burglaryLate medieval use
Through the Middle Ages, the Chapter House saw daily use for the meetings of the Benedictine community, where faults committed by individual monks were corrected and abbey business was conducted. There were normally 48 monks in the later Middle Ages, including the abbot and 14 or 16 senior monks, who sat along the eastern side of the room. They processed into the Chapter House in pairs in order of seniority, and sat on the tiered stone seats around the walls.
Just as Henry III had envisaged, the building was occasionally used for royal councils and meetings of Parliament. This began in Henry’s reign, in 1257 and again in 1265 (during the brief government of the rebel baronial leader Simon de Montfort, who had imprisoned the king after the Battle of Lewes). It also occurred in the mid 14th century. In 1352, the Commons met in the Chapter House, and again in 1376, 1377 and 1384, apparently because their habitual meeting room in the palace was being used for other purposes. They may also have met there in 1381, 1382 and 1395.
From 1397, the Commons were installed in the much larger refectory (dining hall) of the abbey, returning the Chapter House permanently to the monks. The cohabitation had not been easy: the abbey’s sacrist complained that the Commons’ stamping with boots had damaged the matting on the floor.
The final departure of the Commons seems to have provided an opportunity for new decoration inside the Chapter House, in the form of some magnificent wall paintings. A fine depiction of the Last Judgement was painted behind the seat from which the abbot administered judgement to his monks, and more naïve scenes from the Book of Revelation were depicted on other walls.
The Record Office
In 1540, at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Westminster Abbey ceased to be a Benedictine monastery, and was re-founded as a cathedral, with a Dean and canons. A brief revival of monastic life at the abbey under the Roman Catholic Mary I only lasted between 1556 and 1559. It was then re-founded as a collegiate church under a Dean.
The Chapter House, evidently in disrepair, began to be used for the storage of royal documents at this time. By 1610 this use was well established: the building could be sealed with three locks, and the documents were held in chests, arranged by reigns, each clearly labelled. This regime continued until the 1750s, when the worsening condition of the building could not be ignored.
The solution was a virtual reconstruction of the Chapter House in 1753. Its roof was replaced and its medieval windows were bricked up, with only small openings to admit light. Inside, the vault was removed and the central column used to support an attic-level store; around the walls were new wooden cupboards (‘presses’) to hold the records. A suspended wooden floor concealed the medieval tiled pavement. When the reconstruction was complete, hardly any of the building’s medieval splendour remained on view, and much had been permanently destroyed.
Though there were concerns about the risk of fire – with anxiety especially for Domesday Book, now brought here from the palace – the building was now considered to be a modern and efficient repository for records. Indeed, when fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster in 1834, the fact that the records were kept separate from the palace saved them. However, the Chapter House’s days as a record repository were numbered.
The 19th-century restoration
In 1854, the removal of records from the Chapter House into the new Public Record Office on Chancery Lane began, and the possibility was mooted of restoring the building to its original appearance.
The restoration was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, eminent architect of the ‘Gothic Revival’ and Surveyor of the Fabric to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. As the Chapter House remained government property, Scott was commissioned by the Office of Works, rather than the Dean, and it was never suggested that the Chapter House would be returned to the abbey authorities. It was being restored, at public expense, as an ancient monument.
The restoration proceeded slowly, and with an ever-worsening relationship between the Office and Scott. The architect sometimes ignored requests for information, and was hesitant to reveal the escalating costs of the work. These eventually amounted to 50% more than he had originally estimated.
Scott’s scholarly approach to the work can be seen in his restoration of the vault and windows, which accurately evoke the building’s medieval appearance, while some of his new features, such as the external pinnacles, are in a convincing medieval style. The return of the wall paintings and tiled pavement to view are especially important achievements. As a 20th-century historian concluded, ‘[Scott] found the Chapter House full of bookcases, staircases, galleries … If we have an idea today of its noble original beauty, Scott has given it us.’
The Chapter House and Pyx Chamber are now under the guardianship of English Heritage and are managed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. In 2010, English Heritage completed a two-year programme of conservation of the external stonework and the lead roof covering.
Scroll through the image gallery below to see more details of the Chapter House’s art and architecture.
Top image © mauritius images GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
Chapter House interior
Inner entrance arch
Vaulted ceiling
Last Judgement
The Lamb of God
Fish
Find out more
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Visit the Chapter House and Pyx Chamber
Built by the royal masons in 1250, the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey was originally used in the 13th century by Benedictine monks for their daily meetings.
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Robbery of the King’s Treasure at Westminster Abbey
Read more about how the theft from Edward I’s treasury did nothing to help strained relations between Westminster Abbey and the royal palace.
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English Heritage podcast: a royal raid
Listen to the story of the historic heist dating back more than 700 years – the raid on Edward I’s treasure and its unlikely setting.
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Further reading
SE Rigold, The Chapter House and the Pyx Chamber, Westminster Abbey (London, 1976)
W Rodwell and S Brindle, The Chapter House and Pyx Chamber, Westminster Abbey (London, 2002)
W Rodwell and R Mortimer (eds), Westminster Abbey Chapter House: The History, Art and Architecture of ‘A Chapter House beyond Compare’ (London, 2010)