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Standing between Westminster Abbey, and the Westminster Palace, St Margarets Church could be overlooked. It forms part the the World Heritage Site listing together with these two. Westminster Abbey started out as a St Peters Benedictine monastery, the abbey church was used by the monks a number of times each day for their services. Nothing was supposed to disturb the monks in their duty to undertake this. The monks of St Peters Abbey found that the people who came each day to hear mass disturbed them, so they set about building a smaller church for the people next to the abbey in the second half of the 11th century. This also happened in other places and often next to or as a part of an abbey ruin you will find the remains of the church next to it, or in many cases a working parish church still. The Church built by the monks at Westminster they dedicated to St Margaret of Antiock, a popular dedication in the middle ages but little is known about this saint today. As was common practice the monks of the abbey ministered to the growing flock, up to the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1540.
Photo by John Salmon There have been since a number of churches on this site, or variations to its design.
The church has, like the abbey next to it, had a special status for most of its existence:-
View from Parliament Square with Westminster Abbey behind St Margaret's church Photo by Phillip Perry
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