Buildings
N all probability the name of Westminster Abbey would never have come into existence had it not been necessary to distinguish the Abbey Church lying to the west of St. Paul's (founded by Ethelbert in 610) from another Abbey Church that stood upon the rising ground now known as Tower Hill. Consequently, the one was described as the West Minster, the other the East Minster; and when, in course of time, the latter was swept away, the western edifice not only retained the description of "The West Minster," but gave its name also to the district around. The earliest mention of West Minster occurs in a Saxon charter dated 785.