Houses of Parliament
(Nearest tube: Westminister)
No parliament buildings in the world are more recognisable than Britain's. The site of the present parliament, or the Palace of Westminster, as it's officially called, situated on the banks of the river Thames in Westminster - London, has been home to a palace for 1000 years. Originally built by Edward the Confessor in the early 11 th century, it was enlarged, in the latter part of the century, by William I (the Conqueror), who thought the palace to be inferior to the princely palaces of his native France.
After the transfer of the royal residence to Whitehall, the palace began to serve as the seat of parliament. Although not strongly fortified, William's palace remained intact for centuries, but was steadily eroded away by a succession of re-buildings and destructive fires. The present palace is a Gothic building designed by Sir Charles Barry and built between 1840 and 1888.
While appearing to be one building, the palace consists of several buildings within its exterior shell. The best view of the palace can be seen from directly opposite across the river Thames or from Westminster Bridge, which crosses the river next to it. The palace it sandwiched between two great towers. On the right sits the 320 foot high famous clock tower, which houses the famous "Big Ben" clock named after the rather large Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works. Renowned for its reliability, its chimes are famous throughout the world, especially on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. On the left of the palace lies the 334 foot high Victoria Tower that was designed to hold the parliamentary archive.
In between these two great towers sits Britain's two Houses of Parliament, the Upper Chamber, the House of Lords and the Lower Chamber, the House of Commons. The House of Lords is splendidly decorated in Gothic style. Their Lordships, a mixture of hereditary and life peers, sit on red leather benches while the Lord Chancellor sits on the "woolsack", so named after the woolsacks that were used to carry wool in Westminster during the Middle Ages and as such represents the country's medieval wealth. The woolsack is situated directly opposite the throne from which the monarch traditionally reads the government's programme on the opening day of parliament. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, after several years of Republican rule in the aftermath of the King's defeat during the English Civil War, the monarch was permitted to enter only the Upper House of Parliament. This convention applies to this very day to show both the limitations of the powers of the monarch and the dominance of parliamentary democracy within Britain's Constitutional system. Before the Civil War is was common for the King to ignore parliament and often dissolve it at will which not surprisingly provoked considerable anger among parliamentarians, who preferred to go to war against the king rather than to submit to his autocratic rule.
The House of Commons is much more plain than the Lords, having been destroyed a in a bombing raid in 1941 and rebuilt simply without elaborate decorations. Seating is arranged in a similar way as in the House of Lords, but is sufficient only for 437 of the 651 elected members. The two sides of the chamber are divided by a space that is two swords length wide marked on either side by two red stripes. This is to ensure that opposing benches do not get within fighting distance of each other. At the top in between the two sides sits the Speaker's chair. Members of the Lower House, as the representatives of the communities or Commons, began to meet separately from those of the House of Lords from 1332.
Among the other buildings within the interior of the palace is Westminster Hall. Built by William I in 1097 it served as a place of feasts and ceremonies. It was also used as a Court and many notable figures stood trial there including Sir Thomas More (1535) , the Duke of Somerset (1551) , the Duke of Northumberland (1553), Guy Fawks (1606) and King Charles I (1649). Plaques cemented into the floor mark the places where these people stood during their trials.
The Palace of Westminster is open to visitors, who enter through St Stephen's entrance and proceed along St Stephen's Hall, a long narrow elaborately decorated hall which exhibits statues and pictures of famous British statesmen, towards the Central Lobby where they can spot many contemporary political figures.