History

The Quire

Westminster Abbey has resounded to music every day for more than a thousand years. Come to one of the daily choral services at the Abbey and you will hear our Choir singing from their stalls in the quire - continuing a tradition dating back to the plainsong chanted by the monks of the 10th-century monastic foundation.

The quire stalls

Other stalls are assigned to clergy and officers of the Abbey and to the High Commissioners for the Commonwealth countries when they attend services. The original medieval quire stalls were replaced in the 18th century and again by the present ones in 1848. The black and white marble floor dates from 1677.

The quire stalls

Quire is an alternative spelling of Choir.

Abbey choristers in the quire stalls

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