You can also opt to take afternoon tea on the Riverside Terrace, overlooking the Thames. These tours are open to anyone, although because of the tour length they are not suitable for children under 5. Tours ascend steps to the top of the tower and go behind the clock dials to the mechanism room where you can see how the clocks work. Demand for these tours is very high, and they are usually booked 6 months ahead.
Most photos are available for licensing, please contact Britain Express image library. Tickets for tours from Portcullis House on Victoria Embankment. We've 'tagged' this attraction information to help you find related historic attractions and learn more about major time periods mentioned. Medieval Victorian. Heritage Rated from 1- 5 low-exceptional on historic interest.
Big Ben - 0 miles Historic Building. Jewel Tower - 0. Boadicea and Her Daughters Statue - 0. Westminster Abbey - 0. Victoria Tower Gardens - 0. Battle of Britain Monument - 0. Churchill War Rooms - 0. Free entry to top London attractions.
Toggle navigation. Best of Britain. The Palace of Westminster, London. Pugin to replace the medieval parliament buildings, which burnt to the ground in The result of their work is one of the great buildings of the Victorian era and acts as home to the Houses of Parliament.
Elizabeth Tower clock. Victoria Tower and a London bus. The fire of , which destroyed much but not all of the old palace of Westminster, provided an opportunity to put into place some of the long existing hopes and plans for a purpose-built Parliament. After a controversial competition, and amid seemingly interminable wrangling, the project was entrusted to the architect Charles Barry , who collaborated with the artist and designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin Their masterpiece, in its external appearance and its internal decoration, was inevitably something of a compromise of styles and aspirations, but it aimed to embody a vision of Britishness.
The resulting building is now a much loved national icon. The new palace of Westminster incorporated parts of the surviving structure of the old palace, most notably the medieval Westminster Hall and the adjoining law courts until they moved to new buildings in the Strand in the s. Built in the Perpendicular style, it aimed to harmonize with the surrounding buildings, not least the Henry VII chapel at the east end of Westminster Abbey. Yet the new palace was a strikingly large and original conception, providing clever and elegant solutions to many of the technical problems that existed at the time, including the use of metalwork in the roofs in order to reduce the risk of fire damage.
These developments emerged over a couple of decades, as the new palace was constructed around the ruins of the old, in which politicians continued to sit and work.
In fact, the name really applies to the great bell in the clock tower and was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, MP for Marylebone, the first commissioner of works, the government department which oversaw the whole project.
While the Lords used its new chamber from and the Commons was able to occupy its chamber from , the palace as a whole was not completed until By that time a bitter quarrel had broken out between the respective sons of Pugin and Barry as to which of them had ultimately been responsible for the overall design.
Certainly it was Barry who had had to shoulder the exhausting burdens of running the building works and being subjected to the constant interference of parliamentarians, who were concerned not only about style, but about the enormous costs and repeated delays. Nowadays, however, it is generally accepted that the two men had an equally significant and interrelated impact on the project.
Sadly, neither Barry nor Pugin lived to see the New Palace finished. In fact bombs and other acts of violence have played a prominent role in Westminster's history. In , Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated there.
A Fenian bomb in severely damaged the Common Chamber and seriously injured three. During the Blitz , the Palace was hit no less than 14 times. And a car bomb exploded in the car park in , killing Conservative politician Airey Neave. Tighter security since then has prevented further tragedies. But people with axes to grind still see Westminster as the perfect backdrop to their protests: from flour-bombing Tony Blair to staging rooftop sit-ins dressed as super heroes.
As the seat of governance and power, the Palace of Westminster has been making the news since the 11th century — and it doesn't show any signs of stopping. The only Members of Parliament allowed to eat or drink in the Chamber is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who can have an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
Houses of Parliament. History of London. Did you know?
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