Editing Westminster Abbey (section)

=== Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries<span class="anchor" id="The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries"></span> ===
[[File:Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries, London, July 20, 2023.jpg|thumb|Treasures in the Jubilee Galleries]]
The [[Westminster Abbey Museum]] was located in the 11th-century vaulted [[undercroft]] beneath the former monks' dormitory. This is one of the oldest areas of the abbey, dating almost to the foundation of the church by Edward the Confessor in 1065. This space had been used as a museum since 1908,{{sfn|Trowles|2008|p=156}} but was closed to the public when it was replaced as a museum in June 2018 by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries (high in the abbey's [[triforium]] and accessed through the Weston Tower, which encloses a lift and stairs).<ref name="gallery" />

The exhibits include a set of life-size [[Effigy|effigies]] of English and British monarchs and their consorts, originally made to lie on the coffin in the funeral procession or to be displayed over the tomb. The effigies date from the 14th to the 18th centuries, and some include original clothes.{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|pp=51–52}}

On display in the galleries is ''[[The Coronation Theatre: Portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II|The Coronation Theatre, Westminster Abbey: A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II]]'', a portrait by [[Ralph Heimans]] of the queen standing on the Cosmati pavement where she was crowned in 1953.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 September 2012 |title=Queen portrait unveiled in Australia |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-19772877 |access-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325015459/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-19772877 |archive-date=2019-03-25}}</ref> Other exhibits include a model of an unbuilt tower designed by [[Christopher Wren]]; a paper model of the abbey as it was for [[Coronation of Queen Victoria|Queen Victoria's 1837 coronation]]; and the wedding licence of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, who were married in the abbey in 2011.<ref name="Wainwright-2018" />