Plans for the first major building work at Westminster Abbey in more than a quarter of a millennium have been announced.
The proposals to build a crown-type structure on the roof of the medieval Abbey are expected to alter the London skyline.
The corona is part of a £23 million development planned for the site and will complete a section of the church that has been left unfinished for centuries.
The proposals also include a lift on the outside to allow access to a museum, and it is hoped that the work will be completed by 2013, in time to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation at the Abbey.
The world heritage site is also a Royal Peculiar, meaning that the Dean of Westminster - the head of the Abbey - is directly answerable to the monarch.
The corona will replace the existing lantern, a small, plain concrete pyramid roof above the Crossing in front of the high altar, where every monarch including the Queen has been crowned for the last thousand years.
The Westminster Abbey 2020 Vision plans include opening up the London Abbey’s upper gallery, known as the triforium, to house a museum which will display many historic treasures currently hidden away such as the 14th century Litlyngton Missal illuminated manuscript.
