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Westminster Abbey chapter house ranks as one of the spectacular achievements of European Gothic architecture; and that is precisely what its builder, King Henry III, wished. Begun in the mid-1240s, and completed within a decade, its pre-eminence was recognized in its own day, when the chronicler Matthew Paris described Westminster as having 'a chapter house beyond compare: It exhibits many features of distinction, from the elevation of its main chamber above a vaulted undercroft to the prominent display of Henry's arms - sixty-two times - in the tile pavement.
Lying adjacent to the principal royal palace in England of its day, Westminster Abbey has always had a uniquely complex relationship with the Crown and monarchy, enjoying the status of Royal Peculiar from the sixteenth century. In the Middle Ages, the king's great court, the predecessor of the English Parliament, sometimes met in the chapter house or in the refectory, and the royal Wardrobe established one of its repositories within the walls of the abbey. The undercroft (`crypt') and a nearby room known as the Pyx chamber were commandeered as royal treasuries from the reign of Edward 1, if not earlier, and in 1303 the abbey became the focus of a scandal when one of the chambers was broken into and robbed.
After the Dissolution, the chapter house and Pyx chamber became repositories for government archives, while the undercroft fell out of use. The Public Record Office was thus born in the chapter house, and stayed there until the late 1850s. During the following decade, the building, which had been terribly mutilated over the centuries, underwent a comprehensive restoration at the hands of Sir George Gilbert Scott, to become what it is today. Still a 'Crown enclave' within Westminster Abbey, the chapter house and Pyx chamber are under the care of English Heritage, although, by a management agreement signed in 2003, day-to-day running of the buildings is now the responsibility of the Dean and Chapter.