Westminster Abbey orders a corona

Westminser Abbey the site of the coronation is set to have a new addition added to its roof. The feature will cost £10m and is known as a corona.

Confusingly, as is the way with the English language there are umpteen different meanings for the word corona. When I think of a Corona, I think of the beer of the same name. Apparently, a corona also is the name for a long, blunt ended cigar. In addition, the word describes coloured rings of lights, typically from red outside to blue inside, which sometimes appear to border the Sun or Moon. The origins of the word, according to A Dictionary of First Names (Oxford Paperback Reference, Oxford University Press, 2006) comes: "From a Late Latin name meaning ‘crown’; name of a minor saint martyred in Syria in the 2nd century, who was venerated in Bavaria, Austria, and Bohemia in the Middle Ages".

The corona planned for Westminster Abbey will be a crown like structure. According to Ruth Gledhill, the Religion Correspondent in The Times: "The intention is to create a gilded structure, which is likely to be composed in part of wood, glass and lead, in time for the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen's Coronation in June 2013".

Visitors to London can hear about the Abbey's rich history with The Palace Trail audio travel guide. The Palace Trail walking tour begins outside of the Abbey and concludes in front of Buckingham Palace. Listeners have the flexibility to enjoy seeing the sights at their own pace, as opposed to having their agenda set by a conventional tour guide.

A Benedictine monastery was established here in the middle of the tenth century. After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror elected to have his coronation in the Abbey. Every subsequent English - then later British - monarch has been crowned in the Abbey - bar two. Find out which two with The Palace Trail audio tour guide, discover why Westminster Abbey is a royal peculiar and more. To hear an audio sample from The Palace Trail please click here.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London city walking tours. All of which are available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotion code into the shopping basket page: VL405.

The image above shows the West Towers of Westminster Abbey, which were begun under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren, but were completed in 1745 - after Wren's death - under the gaze of one of his pupils, Nicholas Hawksmoor.