Westminster Abbey isn't just where monarchs are crowned; it's where Darwin rubs shoulders with Dickens in what amounts to Britain's most illustrious village cemetery.

Since 1066, every coronation except two has taken place here, though the building you see today is largely Henry III's thirteenth-century creation, with those distinctive twin towers added by Nicholas Hawksmoor in the 1740s.

The abbey holds over 3,000 bodies beneath its floors, creating what one Victorian called "the great charnel house of English genius." Newton lies here with his apple tree carved in marble, while nearby, Ben Jonson was buried standing up because he couldn't afford the six feet of horizontal space. The Unknown Warrior, brought from France in 1920, is the only grave in the abbey you cannot walk across.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the abbey's role as the stage for royal drama, from Edward the Confessor's shrine to the Coronation Chair that has seated every monarch since 1308, revealing how this Gothic masterpiece became the nation's memory palace.