Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
residents are entitled to a free guided tour of the palace, as
well as a guided tour up Big Ben (Mon-Fri 9.15am, 11.15am
& 2.15pm; no under-11s); both need to be organized well in
advance through your local MP or a member of the House of
Lords. Visitors for Big Ben must enter via Portcullis House, the
modern building on Victoria Embankment.
1
Westminster Hall
Virtually the only relic of the medieval palace is the bare expanse of
Westminster
Hall
,
which you enter after passing through security. Built by William II in 1099, it was
saved from the 1834 fire by the timely intervention of the PM, Lord Melbourne, who
took charge of the firefighting himself. The sheer scale of the hall - 240ft by 60ft - and
its huge oak hammerbeam roof, added by Richard II in the late fourteenth century,
make it one of the most magnificent secular medieval halls in Europe. It has also
witnessed some nine hundred years of English history and been used for the lying-in-
state of members of the Royal Family and a select few non-royals. Until 1821 every
royal coronation banquet was held here and during the ceremony, the Royal Champion
would ride into the hall in full armour to challenge any who dared dispute the
sovereign's right to the throne.
Until the nineteenth century the hall was also used as the country's highest court
of law:
William Wallace
had to wear a laurel crown during his treason trial here;
Thomas More
was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered (though in the end
was simply beheaded);
Guy Fawkes
, the Catholic caught trying to blow up Parliament
on November 5, 1605, was also tried here and actually hanged, drawn and quartered
in Old Palace Yard. The trial of
Charles I
took place here, but the king refused to take
his hat off, since he did not accept the court's legitimacy.
Oliver Cromwell
, whose statue
now stands outside the hall, was sworn in here as Lord Protector in 1653, only to be
disinterred after the Restoration and tried here (whilst dead). His head was displayed
on a spike above the hall for several decades until a storm dislodged it. It's now buried
in a secret location at Cromwell's old college in Cambridge University.
St Stephen's Hall
From Westminster Hall, visitors pass through the tiny
St Stephen's Hall
, designed
by Barry as a replica of the palace's Gothic chapel (built by Edward I), where the
Commons met from 1550 until the 1834 fire. It was into that chapel that Charles I
entered with an armed guard in 1642 in a vain attempt to arrest five MPs who had
made a speedy escape down the river - “I see my birds have flown”, he is supposed to
have said. Shortly afterwards, the Civil War began, and no monarch has entered the
Commons since. It was on the steps of the hall, in 1812, that Spencer Perceval - the
only British prime minister to be assassinated - was shot by a merchant whose business
had been ruined by the Napoleonic Wars.
Central Lobby
Next you come to the bustling, octagonal
Central Lobby
, where constituents can
“lobby” their MPs. In the tiling of the lobby Pugin inscribed the Biblical quote in
Latin: “Except the Lord keep the house, they labour in vain that build it”. In view
of what happened to the architects, the sentiment seems like an indictment of
parliamentary morality - Pugin ended up in Bedlam mental hospital and Barry
died from overwork within months of completing the job.
The House of Commons
If you're going to listen to proceedings in the
House of Commons
, you'll be asked to
sign a form vowing not to cause a disturbance and then led up to the Public Gallery.
Protests from the gallery used to be a fairly regular occurrence: suffragettes have poured
flour, farmers have dumped dung, Irish Nationalists have lobbed tear gas and lesbians
have abseiled down into the chamber, but a screen now protects the MPs. An
incendiary bomb in May 1941 destroyed Barry's original chamber, so what you see
