Reconstruction begins in 1245 on the site of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter in Westminster, popularly called Westminster Abbey, under the patronage of Henry III, after the demolition of a Norman church built in the mid-eleventh century in Westminster by Edward the Confessor.

The architect is Henry of Reims, who brings to the project a first hand knowledge of French High Gothic architecture.

The design, although modified by the Parisian Rayonnant style, closely follows the French Gothic plan first established a half-century before at Chartres Cathedral and later used at the cathedrals of Reims and Amiens.

Key to this plan are the four-part rib vaults, the three-story elevation, the round piers with attached colonnettes, and the tall, narrow proportions of the main spaces.