Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• There's a civilized public toilet down the stairs behind Boadicea. Cross the street to
just under Big Ben and continue one block inland to the busy intersection of Parliament
Square. Pause here for the view.
Parliament Square
To your left are the sandstone-hued
Houses of Parliament.
If Parliament is in session, the
entrance (midway down the building) is lined with tourists, enlivened by political demon-
strations, and staked out by camera crews interviewing Members of Parliament (MPs) for
the evening news. Only the core part, Westminster Hall, survives from the circa-1090s ori-
ginal. While the Houses of Parliament are commonly described as “Neo-Gothic” (even in
this topic), this uniquely English style is more specifically called Neo-Perpendicular Goth-
ic. For a peek at genuine Perpendicular Gothic (the fanciest and final stage of that style),
simply look across the street at the section of Westminster Abbey closest to the Houses of
Parliament—it dates from 1484.
Kitty-corner across the square, the two white towers of
Westminster Abbey
rise
above the trees. The broad boulevard of Whitehall (here called Parliament Street) stretches
to your right up to Trafalgar Square.
This square is the heart of what was once a suburb of London—the medieval City of
Westminster. Like Buda and Pest (later Budapest), London is two cities that grew into one.
In Roman and medieval times, the city was centered farther east, near St. Paul's Cathedral.
But in the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor moved his court here, and the center
of political power shifted to this area. Edward built a palace and a church (minster) here in
the west, creating the city of “West Minster.” Over time, the palace evolved into a meeting
place for debating public policy—a parliament. Today's Houses of Parliament sit atop the
remains of Edward's original palace. To this day, the Houses of Parliament are known to
Brits as the “Palace of Westminster.”
