Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Stroll the room to read various plaques about the hall's history. The King's Table
(c.1250) originally sat on a raised platform at the south end of the hall. Here the king
presided—dispensing justice, welcoming ambassadors, hosting his coronation banquet,
toasting revelers.
England's vaunted legal system was invented in this hall, as this was the major court
of the land for 700 years. King Charles I was tried and sentenced to death here. Guy
Fawkes was condemned for plotting to blow up the Halls of Parliament in 1605. (He's best
remembered today for the sly-smiling “Guy Fawkes mask” that has become the symbol of
21st-century anarchists.)
In more recent times, the hall has hosted the lying-in-state of Winston Churchill, G-
G-G-George VI, and the Queen Mother. And in 2011, Britain's bigwigs gathered here for
a speech by Barack Obama.
• Walking through the hall and up the stairs, you'll enter the busy world of today's govern-
ment. You soon reach St. Stephen's Hall, where visitors wait to enter the House of Com-
mons Chamber.
This long, beautifully lit room was the original House of Commons for three centuries
(from 1550 until the fire of 1834). MPs sat in church pews on either side of the hall—the
ruling party on one side, the opposition on the other—a format they'd keep when they
moved into the new chambers.
It was here that British history turned forever. On January 4, 1642, King Charles I
marched into this room with 400 soldiers and demanded that Parliament turn over five
rebels. The Speaker bluntly refused. The standoff between King and Parliament eventually
snowballed into the English Civil War, the king was decapitated, and Parliament emerged
triumphant.
After the fire of 1834, the hall was rebuilt. The stained glass windows—forming a
tall, rectangular grid—are a textbook example of the “Perpendicular” Gothic style used by
architect Charles Barry.
• Next, you reach the...
This ornate, octagonal, high-vaulted room is often called the “heart of British govern-
ment,” because it sits in the geographical center of the Palace, midway between the House
of Commons (to the left) and House of Lords (right). Clerks bustle about. Constituents
come to this lobby to petition, or “lobby,” their MPs (from which the term may derive).
