
Westminster. By tradition the site of the Abbey was first known as Torneia (785) and means thorn island, being once a low lying islet regularly cut off from the mainland at high tide. Recorded as Westminster in 785, the name is derived from west and Old English mynster, monastery' or church', the west because it lies to the west of London. Westminster Abbey began as a small church attached to a Benedictine monastery, was rebuilt in the eleventh century and completed in 1388. The village of Westminster (a City since 1540) was joined up to London in the 18th century.
The station opened as WESTMINSTER BRIDGE on 24 December 1868; re-named WESTMINSTER 1907.