Dean's Yard

Dean's Yard, Westminster, comprises most of the remaining precincts of the former monastery of Westminster, not occupied by the Abbey buildings. It is known to members of Westminster School as Green, and referred to without an article. It is a large gated quadrangle, closed to public traffic, surrounding a green upon which Westminster School pupils have legal rights to play football (they have some claim to have invented the modern game). Until the seventeenth century the Green was a third of its present size, since to the south stood the Queen's Scholars' dormitory, which was in monastic times the granary: its stones still support Church House. The East side consists of buildings occupied by Westminster School; the South by Church House, the headquarters of the Church of England; the West by several School buildings and Westminster Abbey Choir School; and the North by the archway to the Great Sanctuary, Abbey offices and part of the Deanery.