The Prince of Wales has become the patron of a multi-million pound fundraising effort at Westminster Abbey.

The heir to the throne has put his name to the Westminster Abbey Appeal which is seeking to raise £12m in the next four to five years for the re-opening of the Abbey’s triforium, the 13th Century galleries built by Henry III.

The fundraising campaign is not yet a public campaign, but a statement from the Westminster Abbey said it will be “considering carefully” this status in the future.

Fundraising has already been underway at the Abbey and has already resulted in the conversion of a house in Dean’s Yard into an education centre and the building of a new restaurant in the Cellarium refectory, which is due to open next year.

The triforium is due to be open in either 2015 or 2016, depending on the progress of fundraising. The view from the triforium, which takes in the Houses of Parliament and the Abbey, was praised by John Betjeman as being “the best view in Europe”.

The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said: “This is a very significant endorsement of the triforium project, which will improve in a genuinely transformational way the quality of access visitors have to the Abbey, and the quality of their understanding of this precious church.”