20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA

Westminster Abbey

Abbey

Place photograph

7.8

Wildland

1–2 hours

Time

Paid

Cost

Atmospheric

Feel

Urban historicHistory loversLiterature lovers

Why it's Wildland

7.8

In Poets’ Corner, more than 100 poets and writers are buried or commemorated. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first poet buried there, in 1400—not for his poetry, but because he was Clerk of the King’s Works.

Westminster Abbey earns its place for the remarkable concentration of people and stories held within one historic building. Poets’ Corner makes that history tangible: Chaucer’s burial began a tradition that reaches from Shakespeare and Jane Austen to Ted Hughes and C. S. Lewis.

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20 Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3PA

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The experience

Focus your visit on Poets’ Corner: find the graves and memorials of writers including Chaucer, Dickens and Hardy, then look for more recent commemorations such as those to Ted Hughes, C. S. Lewis and Philip Larkin. Check ticket and opening arrangements before setting out.

Things to do

Explore Poets’ Corner

Visit the south transept’s literary memorials. The Abbey identifies more than 100 poets and writers buried or commemorated there.

Find Chaucer’s burial place

The first poet buried in Poets’ Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer, in 1400. The Abbey says this was because he was Clerk of the King’s Works, rather than because he was a poet.

Look for later literary memorials

The Abbey lists memorials to Ted Hughes, C. S. Lewis and Philip Larkin, alongside older graves and commemorations.

Make a day of it

Quick escape · Allow 1–2 hours; check current visit arrangements.

Poets’ Corner: a focused visit

01
Book an Abbey entry ticket in advance and check the current opening times.
02
Visit Poets’ Corner in the south transept.
03
Look for the graves and memorials of writers named by the Abbey, including Chaucer, Dickens, Ted Hughes and C. S. Lewis.

Verified history

The Abbey says Geoffrey Chaucer was the first poet buried in Poets’ Corner, in 1400. His burial there was not because he was a poet: he was Clerk of the King’s Works. Nearly two centuries later, Edmund Spenser asked to be buried near Chaucer. The tradition of burials and memorials continues; the Abbey reports that more than 100 poets and writers are buried or commemorated in Poets’ Corner.

Hidden details

Chaucer’s reason for burial here — The Abbey notes that Chaucer was buried here because he was Clerk of the King’s Works—not because he was a poet.

The ‘corner’ is part of a wider transept story — Poets’ Corner proper is in the eastern aisle of the south transept, but graves and memorials have spread across the whole transept.

When to go

· Check current opening times; no quieter time is verified by the supplied sources.

The supplied sources do not establish a seasonal advantage.

Check before visiting.

What to look for

In Poets’ Corner, look for the graves of Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy, as well as memorials to Ted Hughes, C. S. Lewis and Philip Larkin. Notice how the commemorations extend beyond the eastern aisle of the south transept into the wider transept.