Dean’s Yard is a large quadrangle, closed to public traffic, surrounding a green upon which Westminster School pupils (who know is as ’Green’) have legal rights to play football.

The Yard is entered through a grand archway situated amid a row eight Gothic style houses, built in 1854 as part of the Westminster Improvement Act. Before that time, the area to the west of the Abbey was littered with several narrow streets and alleys.

Until the seventeenth century the Green was just a third of its current size. Before this to its south was the Queen’s Scholars’ Dormitory.

There is evidence that the Benedictine monks had their own school here as early as the 12th century; it functioned until Henry VIII dissolved the monastery in 1533, ousted the community and, with no masters, the school was abandoned.

The east and west sides now have buildings of Westminster School. On the south side is Church House, the headquarters of the Church of England.

Historically the Abbey had ancient rights to provide sanctuary to those considered criminals to the English state. The Abbey’s Sanctuary extended from Dean’s Yard to the future site of Parliament Square where Thieving Lane was aptly named.