'View of Westminster Abbey & St.Margarets Church adjoining.', late 18th-early 19th century. Westminster Abbey (on the right) is a mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. The building was originally a Benedictine monastic church until 1539 and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral, but since 1560 it is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England 'Royal Peculiar', (a church responsible directly to the sovereign). Published by Alexander Hogg.