Short answers, pulled from the story.
40 English and British monarchs have been crowned at Westminster Abbey since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066. This count excludes Edward V, Lady Jane Grey, and Edward VIII, who were never crowned.
More than 3,300 people are buried or commemorated at Westminster Abbey, including an estimated 18 English, Scottish, and British monarchs, prime ministers such as William Gladstone and Clement Attlee, scientists including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Stephen Hawking, and poets and writers in the south transept area known as Poets' Corner. The Unknown Warrior, an unidentified soldier from the First World War, is also buried just inside the Great West Door.
A community of Benedictine monks was established on the site around 959. King Edward the Confessor built the first large church there between 1042 and 1052, consecrated on the 28th of December 1065. Construction of the present Gothic church began on the 6th of July 1245 under Henry III and continued in stages over the following centuries.
Westminster Abbey is a royal peculiar because it is a Church of England church accountable directly to the sovereign rather than to a diocesan bishop. Elizabeth I established this status in 1560 when she re-founded the abbey as the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter after ejecting the Benedictine monks.
The Cosmati pavement is a 700-year-old tile floor in front of the main altar, measuring almost 25 feet square and made of almost 30,000 pieces of coloured glass and stone. It was commissioned by Abbot Richard Ware, who travelled to Rome in 1258 and returned with materials and craftsmen. Coronations take place on this floor, and recent research has linked its geometry to the design of the Anointing Screen used at the 2023 coronation of Charles III.
On the night of the 10th of May 1941, incendiary bombs struck the abbey's precincts and roof. The lantern tower above the crossing collapsed, leaving the building open to the sky, and the deanery and three clergy residences were badly damaged. Estimated damage costs were £135,000. The Coronation Chair and abbey records had been moved out of London in advance, and the Stone of Scone had been buried as a precaution.