Dean's Yard, Westminster, comprises most of the remaining precincts of the historically greater

scope of the monastery or abbey of Westminster, not occupied by its buildings. It is known to
members of Westminster School as Green (referred to without an article). It is a large gated
quadrangle, closed to public traffic, chiefly a green upon which the pupils have the long-use
acquired exclusive rights to sit, read and to play games such as football (they have some claim to
have invented the modern game). For some centuries until a point in the early seventeenth century it
was a third of its present size, since to the south stood the Queen's Scholars' dormitory, which was
in monastic times the granary. Its stones support Church House.
Adjoining buildings

• East: school buildings

• South: Church House, a conference centre and offices of the Church of England
• West: school buildings and Westminster Abbey Choir School
• North: flanking archway to the Great Sanctuary: Abbey offices and part of the Deanery.
Historically the Abbey was one of the last ecclesiastical sanctuaries to surrender such ancient rights,
ostensibly free refuges of asylum, frequently among residents were politically disfavoured and
dangerous inhabitants. They were held in check by the Abbot's own penal jurisdiction, and by the
knowledge that the Abbot could instantly expel them to their fate at the hands of the Common Law:
the Abbey Gatehouse was split into two prisons, one of the Abbot's and one for the constables
outside. Westminster School displays a royal pardon from Charles II of England and Scotland to the
King's Scholars whose action killed a bailiff harassing the mistress of one of them in Dean's Yard,
accused by his fellow authorities of murder. Whether he was excused for reacting to the breach of
some vestigial sanctuary, in stark contrast to the English Commonwealth where such rights were
undeniably defunct, or for a moderate degree of violence that may have been used, such as might
have resulted in a manslaughter charge were the victim not a bailiff is unrecorded. The Abbey's
Sanctuary extended beyond, as far as the north side of Parliament Square, where a short approach,
Thieving Lane through which thieves were taken to the prison (see Richard II's gatehouse, Old
Palace Yard) without entering sanctuary and claiming its immunity,[1] but in the tenements of which
prostitution took hold. HM Treasury is built upon its site, which mainly amid exceptional times or
announcements of high capital taxation or departmental cuts, lends itself to accusations thieving
there continues, but lawfully.