The houses of British Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have met in the Palace of Westminster since around 1550. A royal palace has stood on the site for about 1,000 years, but most of what You see it dates from the mid-19th century when the Palace was rebuilt after a fire in 1834 destroyed the medieval buildings. The oldest part of the Palace is Westminster Hall, built between 1097 and 1099 by William Rufus. Henry VIII was the last monarch to live there; Moved in 1512.
Where is?
The Palace of Westminster is located along the River Themes, between the Westminster and Lambeth bridges, south of Trafalgar Square. You can get the view you see in the picture by riding the London Eye.
How to get there
You can take the tube and exit at Westminster or St. James Park stations. Waterloo train station is just across Themes from the Palace of Westminster.
Great Ben
Big Ben is the bell in the Clock Tower (People often use “Big Ben” as the name of the clock tower). The bell was launched in 1858 and is said to be named after the Commissioner of Works at the time, Benjamin Hall, or heavyweight champion boxer Ben Caunt, take your pick. The musical note of the bell is E, in case you are ringing. Big Ben weighs 13.8 tons (tons).
Victory tower
At the opposite end of the Palace from Big Ben is the Victoria Tower, which contains the Parliamentary Archives. It was built for that purpose after the 1834 fire destroyed the Palace and most of the records in the House of Commons. It is the tallest tower in the Palace and was once the tallest in the world.
“The restoration of Victoria Tower between 1990 and 1994 required 68 miles of scaffold tubes, and one of the largest freestanding scaffolds in Europe. About 1,000 cubic feet of decomposed stone were replaced, and more than 100 shields were re-carved on site by a team of stonemasons’. ~ The Victoria Tower – Parliament of the United Kingdom
Tours and visits to the Palace of Westminster
Foreign visitors can no longer tour the Houses of Parliament during a session. However, they can tour Parliament during the summer opening period.
Those wishing to tour the Houses of Parliament should consult this page for dates, times and ticket prices.
Foreign visitors can still attend debates in both chambers. The Strangers’ Gallery in the House of Commons is open to the public when the House is seated. A seat in the Gallery of the House of Lords is easier to come by. You can queue (line) for tickets at the entrance to St. Stephen’s between Cromwell Green and the Old Palace Yard on St. Margaret Street. See our links in the upper right corner for a map in pdf format of the Palace and the parliamentary estate.
Take a virtual tour of the Palace of Westminster through our Image Gallery, which includes images of the buildings and grounds, as well as Rodin’s statue “The Burghers of Calais” found in the Victoria Tower gardens.
