Westminster Abbey Getting a Facelift
The Times of London quoted a surveyor Friday as saying that almost the entire outside of Westminster Abbey is being refaced with new stone because of air pollution damage.
Peter Foster was quoted as saying the task of replacing the eroded stone with harder-wearing material will cost $13 million by the time it is completed in the early 1990s.
Foster told the newspaper that the money was raised mostly from business donations through the Westminster Abbey Trust, headed by Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
New white stone shows up sharply against the blackened old stone still in place on the outside walls of the abbey, which was built between 1245 and 1740.
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