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'A gothic space rocket to a secret realm' – Westminster Abbey's new £23m tower

The Weston Tower, a sci-fi-style wonder by Ptolemy Dean, opens up a hidden gallery above the nave where William and Kate’s wedding certificate is likely to draw crowds

Nestled into an armpit of Westminster Abbey, hidden behind a flying buttress that leaps up to the chapterhouse, stands what appears to be a gothic space rocket. Sinuous bronze tracery loops its way up the faceted shaft, framing crystalline windows between bands of lead arrowheads, like go-faster stripes shooting towards the heavens.

“We’ve had enormous fun doing this,” says architect Ptolemy Dean, surveyor to the fabric of the abbey since 2012. “It’s not every day you get to add a new tower to Westminster Abbey.”

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2H0VURG

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