Phoenix -- Westminster School, Westminster, London, UK
N 51° 29.938 W 000° 07.671
30U E 699349 N 5709226
The figure of Phoenix was unveiled in 1950 by King George VI at Westminster School after it was reopened following extensive repairs after being bombed by the German Luftwaffe in WWII
Waymark Code: WMT6KA
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/04/2016
Views: 2
The elegant figure of a Pheonix rising from the ashes can best be seen from the East Walk of Westminster Abbey.
From Wikipedia: (
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"'School', originally built in the 1090s as the monks' dormitory, is the School's main hall, used for Latin Prayers (a weekly assembly with prayers in the Westminster-dialect of Latin),[67] exams, and large concerts, plays and the like. From 1599 it was used to teach all the pupils, the Upper and Lower Schools being separated by a curtain hung from a 16th-century pig iron bar, which remains the largest piece of pig iron in the world.[citation needed] The School Gateway was also designed by the Earl of Burlington, and are engraved with the names of many pupils who used to hire a stonemason for the purpose.[68] The panelling "up School" is similarly, but officially, painted with the coats of arms of many former pupils. The original shell-shaped apse at the North end of School gave its name to the Shell forms taught there and the corresponding classes at many other public schools. The current shell displays a Latin epigram on the rebuilding of School, with the acrostic Semper Eadem, Elizabeth I's motto. The classroom door to the right of the Shell was recovered from the notorious Star Chamber at its demolition but was destroyed during the Blitz.
The building lies directly on top of the Westminster Abbey museum, and ends at the start of the Pyx Chamber.
Both School and College had their roofs destroyed during the Blitz by incendiary bombs in 1941. The buildings were re-opened by George VI in 1950.
The phoenix which was placed on the roof of school in the 1950s to commemorate the school's resurgence after World War II."