Number of visits to Westminster Abbey in the UK 2010-2021

The number of visits to Westminster Abbey, one of the United Kingdom’s most iconic churches in the heart of London, decreased sharply in 2020 and 2021 over the previous years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While the visitor volume to the abbey reached a total of nearly 1.6 million in 2019, it dropped to just 222 thousand in 2020 and declined further to 163 thousand in 2021. Westminster Abbey lies very close to the Houses of Parliament and is famous for being the burial place for several monarchs, as well as the location where they are coronated.

Kew Gardens: the top paid attraction

The Royal Botanic Gardens – also known as the Kew Gardens – was the most visited paid tourist attraction in London in 2020, with over 1.2 million guests. Meanwhile, Westminster Abbey was the seventh most visited paid attraction in the city that year. The renowned gardens experienced a decline of about one million guests in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While attendance at the botanic gardens did not fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, Kew Garden’s visitor numbers grew by 61 percent over 2020.

Most visited museums in London and in the UK

After the Kew Gardens, two museums ranked as the second and third most visited tourist attractions in London in 2021. The Natural History Museum in South Kensington and the British Museum recorded more visitors in 2021 compared to the previous year, with the institutions welcoming 1.57 million and 1.33 million museumgoers, respectively. The popularity of the Natural History Museum made it the fourth most visited tourist attraction in the UK in 2021.