Westminster Abbey & St Margarets Church - Thomas Hosmer Shepherd - Framed Print - 12"H x 16"W

Westminster Abbey & St Margarets Church - Thomas Hosmer Shepherd - Framed Print - 12"H x 16"W

NB. The Original was published in 1793

Thomas Hosmer Shepherd was a topographical watercolour artist well known for his architectural paintings.

Thomas was the brother of topographical artist George "Sidney" Shepherd, and was employed to illustrate architecture in London, Edinburgh, Bath and Bristol.

His first acclaim came with Metropolitan improvements, a publication of modern London architecture commissioned by Jones & Co. He worked mostly for Frederick Crace, who employed him to paint old London buildings prior to their demolition.

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and since 1066, the traditional place of Coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs.

Since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign.

The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is situated in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, and is the Anglican parish church . It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch.

Founded in the twelfth century by Benedictine monks, St Margaret's was rebuilt from 1486 to 1523. It became the parish church of the Palace of Westminster in 1614, when the Puritans of the seventeenth century, unhappy with the highly liturgical Abbey, chose to hold Parliamentary services in the more "suitable" St Margaret's, a practice that has continued since that time.

Notable features include the east window of 1509 of Flemish stained glass, created to commemorate the betrothal of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII.