Palace of Westminster: History and Parliament

• The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, located in London.
• The Palace of Westminster is commonly called The Houses of Parliament, for the House of Commons and the House of Lords
• Westminster has become a metonym for the UK Parliament and the British Government.
• The Westminster system of government commemorates the name of the palace.
• The Elizabeth Tower of the palace, nicknamed Big Ben, is a landmark of London and the United Kingdom.
• The palace has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

History and Construction

• The palace was originally constructed in the eleventh century as a royal palace.
• It was the primary residence of the kings of England until 1512, when a fire destroyed the royal apartments.
• The monarch moved to the adjacent Palace of Whitehall.
• The remainder of the palace continued to serve as the home of the Parliament of England, which had met there since the 13th century.
• In 1834 a second, larger fire destroyed the majority of the palace
• The twelfth century Westminster Hall was saved and incorporated into the replacement building.
• The competition to design the new palace was won by architect Charles Barry, who chose a Gothic Revival style for the building.
• Construction started in 1840 and lasted for 30 years.
• Delays, cost overruns, and the deaths of Barry and his assistant, Augustus Pugin, caused the 30 year construction period.
• The palace contains chambers for the House of Commons, House of Lords, and the monarch.
• It has a floor area of 112, 476 m2 (1, 210, 680 sq ft).
• Extensive repairs had to be made after the Second World War, including rebuilding the destroyed Commons chamber.
• Despite further conservation work having been carried out since, the palace is in urgent need of major repairs.
• The predecessor of Parliament, the Curia Regis, met in Westminster Hall when the king was in residence.
• The "Model Parliament", considered the first Parliament of England, met at the palace in 1295.
• Medieval parliaments of England met in a variety of locations, the palace was frequently used and developed into the body's permanent home.
• The palace did not have purpose-built chambers for the House of Commons or the House of Lords, instead using available large gathering spaces.
• In time, the Commons adapted St Stephen's Chapel for its use in the sixteenth century.
• The Lords used the Painted Chamber and, from 1801, the White Chamber.
• The palace underwent significant alterations from the 18th century onwards, as Parliament struggled to carry out its business in the limited available space.
• New storage and committee rooms by John Vardy were completed in 1770.
• A new official residence for the Speaker of the House of Commons was completed in 1795.
• Significant alterations and a new building by James Wyatt were completed in 1801.
• The last alterations were undertaken by Sir John Soane between 1824 and 1827.
• These included new library facilities for both Houses of Parliament and new law courts for the Chancery and King's Bench.
• On 16 October 1834, a fire broke out in the palace after an overheated stove used to destroy the Exchequer's stockpile of tally sticks set fire to the House of Lords Chamber.
• Both Houses of Parliament were destroyed, along with most of the other buildings in the palace complex.
• Westminster Hall was saved due to fire-fighting efforts and a change in the direction of the wind.
• The Jewel Tower and the undercroft, cloisters, and chapter house of St Stephen's Chapel were the only other parts of the palace to survive.
• William IV offered the almost-completed Buckingham Palace to Parliament, hoping to dispose of a residence he disliked.
• The building was considered unsuitable for parliamentary use and the gift was rejected.
• The Painted Chamber and White Chamber were hastily repaired for temporary use.
• In 1835, following that year's General Election, the King permitted Parliament to make "plans for [its] permanent accommodation".
• Each house created a committee.
• A Perpendicular Gothic Revival design by the architect Charles Barry was chosen.
• Barry was inexperienced with Gothic, and relied heavily on Augustus Pugin to design details.
• The Lords Chamber was completed in 1847, and the Commons Chamber in 1852.
• Although most of the work had been carried out by 1860, construction was not finished until a decade afterwards.
• During the Second World War the palace was hit by bombs on fourteen separate occasions.
• A bomb that fell on 26 September 1940 lifted the statue of Richard the Lionheart from its pedestal and bent its sword.
• This image was used as a symbol of the strength of democracy, "which would bend but not break under attack".
• The worst raid took place in the night of 10–11 May 1941, when the palace took at least twelve hits.
• Three people (two policemen and Resident Superintendent of the House of Lords, Edward Elliott) were killed.
• The Commons Chamber and the roof of Westminster Hall were both set alight.
• The hall was prioritised and saved, while the chamber was destroyed.
• The Lords Chamber and Clock Tower were damaged in the same raid.
• The Commons Chamber was rebuilt in a simplified style after the war, being completed in 1950.
• As the need for office space in the palace increased, Parliament acquired office space in the nearby Norman Shaw Building in 1975.
• Office space was constructed in the custom-built Portcullis House which was completed in 2000.
• This increase has enabled all Members of Parliament (MP) to have their own office facilities.
• The palace was designated a Grade I listed building in 1970 and a World Heritage Site in 1987.
• The fabric of the building is in urgent need of restoration.
• In January 2018, the House of Commons voted for both houses to vacate the palace to allow for a complete refurbishment of the building.
• The refurbishment will take at least six years and start no sooner than 2025.
• In September 2022, the Restoration and Renewal Client Board, a joint committee of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, was formed to oversee the necessary works.

Design and Materials

• Charles Barry's collaborative design for the Palace of Westminster uses the Perpendicular Gothic style, which was popular during the 15th century.
• Barry's design uses the Gothic revival of the 19th century.
• Barry was a classical architect, but he was aided by the Gothic architect Augustus Pugin.
• Westminster Hall, which was built in the 11th century and survived the fire of 1834, was incorporated in Barry's design.
• Pugin was displeased with the result of the work, especially with the symmetrical layout designed by Barry.
• He remarked, "All Grecian, sir; Tudor details on a classic body".
• In 1839 Charles Barry toured Britain, looking at quarries and buildings, with a committee which included two leading geologists and a stonecarver.
• Anston, a sand-coloured magnesian limestone quarried in the villages of Anston, South Yorkshire, and Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire was selected.
• Two quarries were chosen from a list of 102, with the majority of the stone coming from the former.
• A crucial consideration was transport, achieved on water via the Chesterfield Canal, the North Sea and the rivers Trent and Thames.
• Anston Stone was cheaper, and "could be supplied in blocks up to four feet thick and lent itself to elaborate carving".
• Barry's new Palace of Westminster was rebuilt using the sandy-coloured Anston limestone.
• The stone soon began to decay owing to pollution and the poor quality of some of the stone used.
• Such defects were clear as early as 1849, but nothing was done for the remainder of the 19th century even after much studying.
• During the 1910s, however, it became clear that some of the stonework had to be replaced.
• In 1928 it was deemed necessary to use Clipsham stone, a honey-coloured limestone from Rutland, to replace the decayed Anston.
• The project began in the 1930s but was halted by the outbreak of the Second World War and completed only during the 1950s.
• By the 1960s pollution had again begun to take its toll.
• A stone conservation and restoration programme to the external elevations and towers began in 1981 and ended in 1994.

Towers

• At base of the tower is the Sovereign's Entrance, used by the monarch whenever entering the palace to open Parliament or for other state occasions.
• The 15 m (49 ft) high archway is richly decorated with sculptures, including statues of Saints George, Andrew and Patrick, and Queen Victoria.
• The main body of the tower houses the Parliamentary Archives in 8. 8 kilometres (5. 5 mi) of steel shelves spread over 12 floors.
• The archives include the master copies of all Acts of Parliament since 1497 and important manuscripts such as the original Bill of Rights.
• The archives also include; the death warrant of King Charles I.
• At the top of the cast-iron pyramidal roof is a 22 m (72 ft) flagstaff, from which flies the Royal Standard (the monarch's personal flag) when the Sovereign is present in the palace.
• On all other days the Union Flag flies from the mast.
• At the north end of the palace is the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the nickname "Big Ben".
• At 96 metres (315 ft) it is only slightly shorter than the Victoria Tower, but much slimmer.
• It was called the Clock Tower until 2012, when it was renamed to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
• The Clock Tower was designed by Augustus Pugin and built after his death.
• Charles Barry asked Pugin to design the clock tower because Pugin had previously helped Barry design the palace.
• The tower houses the Great Clock, which uses the original mechanism built by Edward John Dent to designs by amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison.
• It is highly accurate by nineteenth-century standards, striking the hour to within a second of the time, and remaining reliable since it entered service in 1859.
• The time is shown on four dials 7 metres (23 ft) in diameter, which are made of milk glass and are lit from behind at night.
• The hour hand is 2. 7 metres (8 ft 10 in) long.
• The minute hand 4. 3 metres (14 ft).
• The shortest of the palace's three principal towers (at 91 metres (299 ft)).
• The octagonal Central Tower stands over the middle of the building, immediately above the Central Lobby.
• It was added to the plans on the insistence of Dr. David Boswell Reid, who was in charge of the ventilation of the new Houses of Parliament.
• His plan called for a central chimney through which what he called "vitiated air" would be drawn out of the building with the heat and smoke of about four hundred fires around the palace.
• To accommodate the tower Barry was forced to lower the high ceiling he had planned for the Central Lobby and reduce the height of its windows.
• The tower proved to be an opportunity to improve the palace's exterior design.
• Barry made it a spire in order to balance the effect of the more massive lateral towers.
• The Central Tower completely failed to fulfill its stated purpose, but notable as "the first occasion when mechanical services had a real influence on architectural design".
• It was built for withstanding certain climate-specific architectural elements such as windcatchers.
• Some other features of the palace of Westminster are known as towers.
• St Stephen's Tower is positioned in the middle of the west front of the palace, between Westminster Hall and Old Palace Yard, and houses the public entrance to the palace.
• The pavilions at the northern and southern ends of the river front are called Speaker's Tower and Chancellor's Tower respectively.
• They are named after the presiding officers of the two Houses at the time of the palace's reconstruction; the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellor.
• Speaker's Tower contains Speaker's House, the official residence of the Speaker of the Commons.
• As well as the pinnacles which rise from between the window bays along the fronts of the palace, numerous turrets enliven the building's skyline.
• Like the Central Tower these were built for practical reasons, as they mask ventilation shafts.

Grounds and Interior

• There are a number of small gardens surrounding the Palace of Westminster.
• Victoria Tower Gardens is open as a public park along the side of the river south of the palace.
• Black Rod's Garden (named after the office of Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod) is closed to the public and is used as a private entrance.
• Old Palace Yard, in front of the palace, is paved over and covered in concrete security blocks .
• Cromwell Green (also on the frontage, and in 2006 enclosed by hoardings for the construction of a new visitor centre).
• New Palace Yard (on the north side) and Speaker's Green (directly north of the palace) are all private and closed to the public.
• College Green, opposite the House of Lords, is a small triangular green commonly used for television interviews with politicians.
• The Palace of Westminster contains over 1, 100 rooms, 100 staircases and 4. 8 kilometres (3 mi) of passageways.
• The building is spread over four floors.
• The ground floor is occupied by offices, dining rooms and bars.
• The first, or principal, floor houses the main rooms of the palace, including the debating chambers, the lobbies and the libraries.
• The top two floors are used as committee rooms and offices.
• Some of the interiors were designed and painted by J. G. Crace, working in collaboration with Pugin and others.
• Crace decorated and gilded the ceiling of the Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft.
• The palace is a roughly rectangular building with its long axis parallel to the River Thames.
• The building is planned around the Central Lobby, a large hall from which corridors lead north to the Commons Chamber, south to the Lords Chamber, and west to the public entrance and Westminster Hall.
• To the east are committee rooms and libraries.
• A suite of rooms known as the Royal Apartments are at the disposal of the reigning monarch; they lie beyond the Lords Chamber at the far south of the palace.
• The palace has separate entrances for its different users: the monarch, members of the House of Lords, members of Parliament and the public.
• The Sovereign's Entrance is at the base of the Victoria Tower in the south-west corner of the palace, and leads directly to the Royal Apartments.
• Members of the House of Lords use the Peers' Entrance in the middle of the Old Palace Yard façade, which opens to an entrance hall.
• A staircase from there leads, through a corridor and the Prince's Chamber, to the Lords Chamber.
• Members of Parliament enter their part of the building from the Members' Entrance in the south side of New Palace Yard.
• Their route passes through a cloakroom in the lower level of the Cloisters and eventually reaches the Members' Lobby directly south of the Commons Chamber.
• St Stephen's Entrance, in the approximate centre of the building's western front, is the public entrance.
• Public visitors walk through a flight of stairs to St Stephen's Hall, and then to the Central Lobby.
• St Stephen's Hall houses a collection of marble statues of prominent parliamentarians.
• The Sovereign's Entrance is beneath the Victoria Tower.
• It was designed for the use of the monarch, and is used by them during the State Opening of Parliament.
• The Sovereign's Entrance is also the formal entrance used by visiting dignitaries, as well as the starting point of public tours of the palace.
• From the entrance, a staircase leads up to the principal floor in a broad, unbroken flight of 26 steps made of grey granite.
• At the top is the Norman Porch, a square landing with a central clustered column and a ceiling of four groin vaults with lierne ribs and carved bosses.
• The porch was named for its proposed decorative scheme, which was never completed but would have consisted of statues of the Norman kings and frescoes depicting Norman history.
• As completed, the porch contains stained glass windows depicting Edward the Confessor and a young Queen Victoria, a copy of a 1900 painting of Victoria.
• Busts of prime ministers who have sat in the House of Lords are on the plinths intended for the statues.
• A double door opposite the stairs leads to the Royal Gallery, and another to the right opens to the Robing Room.
• The Robing Room lies at the southern end of the palace's north-south axis, and occupies the centre of the south front, overlooking Victoria Tower Gardens.
• The Sovereign prepares for the State Opening of Parliament here by changing into their official robes and putting on the Imperial State Crown.
• The focus of the room is the chair of state, which sits on a dais of three steps under a canopy adorned with the arms and floral emblems of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• A panel of purple velvet forms the backdrop to the chair, embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework with the royal arms, surrounded by stars and VR monograms.
• Edward Barry designed both the chair; the cushion and back are also embroidered.
• Barry also also designed the ornate marble fireplace across the room, which features gilded statuettes of Saint George and Saint Michael.
• The decorative theme of the room is the legend of King Arthur.
• Many Victorians considered Arthur a source of their nationhood.
• Five frescoes painted by William Dyce between 1848 and 1864 cover the walls, depicting allegorical scenes from the legend.
• Each scene represents a chivalric virtue; the largest, between the two doors, is titled Admission of Sir Tristram to the Round Table.
• The painting illustrates the virtue of Hospitality.
• Seven were originally commissioned but the remaining two paintings were not carried out due to the artist's death.
• Wallpapered panels flanking the Chair of State hang oil portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
• Other decorations in the room are also inspired by the Arthurian legend.
• A series of 18 bas-reliefs beneath the paintings, carved in oak by Henry Hugh Armstead.
• The frieze running below the ceiling, which displays the attributed coats of arms of the Knights of the Round Table.
• The ceiling itself is decorated with heraldic badges.
• The border of the wooden floor is left exposed by the carpeting.
• The Robing Room was briefly used as the House of Lords' meeting chamber while the House of Lords Chamber was occupied by the House of Commons.
• The House of Common's chamber had been destroyed by the Blitz in 1941.
• Immediately north of the Robing Room is the Royal Gallery.
• At 33. 5 by 13. 7 metres (110 by 45 ft), it is one of the largest rooms in the palace.
• Its main purpose is to serve as the stage of the royal procession at State Openings of Parliament.
• It has also been used on occasion by visiting statesmen from abroad when addressing both Houses of Parliament, as well as for receptions in honour of foreign dignitaries.
• It is used more regularly for the Lord Chancellor's Breakfast.
• In the past it was the theatre of several trials of peers by the House of Lords.
• Documents from the Parliamentary Archives are on display in the Royal Gallery.
• A facsimile of Charles I's death warrant is on display.
• The tables and seating offer a workspace for members of the Lords near their debating chamber.
• The decorative scheme of the Royal Gallery was meant to display important moments in British military history.
• The walls are decorated by two large paintings by Daniel Maclise, each measuring 13. 7 by 3. 7 metres (45 by 12 ft): The Death of Nelson and The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo.
• The murals deteriorated rapidly after their completion due to atmospheric pollution.
• They are almost monochrome currently.
• A finished study of The Death of Nelson in better condition hangs in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
• The rest of the planned frescos were cancelled, and the walls are filled with portraits of kings and queens from George I onwards.
• Another decorative element with military undertones are the eight statues of gilded Caen stone.
• The statues flank the three doorways and the bay window of the Gallery, sculpted by John Birnie Philip.
• Each statue depicts a monarch during whose reign a key battle or war took place: Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror.
• Other statues include Richard I, Edward III, Henry V, Elizabeth I, William III, and Anne.
• The panelled ceiling, 13. 7 metres (45 ft) above the floor, features Tudor roses and lions.
• The stained-glass windows show the coats of arms of the Kings of England and Scotland.
• The Prince's Chamber is a small anteroom between the Royal Gallery and the Lords Chamber.
• It is named after the room adjoining the Parliament Chamber in the Old Palace of Westminster.
• It is a place where members of the Lords meet to discuss the business of the House.
• Several doors lead out of the room, to the division lobbies of the House of Lords and to a number of important offices.
• The theme of the Prince's Chamber is Tudor history, and the 28 oil portraits painted on panels depict members of the Tudor dynasty.
• They are the work of Richard Burchett and his pupils.
• The creation of the paintings entailed extensive research, which contributed to the founding of the National Portrait Gallery in 1856.
• 12 bronze bas-reliefs are set into the wall below the portraits, executed by William Theed in 1855–1857.
• Scenes included are The Field of the Cloth of Gold, The Escape of Mary, Queen of Scots and Raleigh Spreading His Cloak As a Carpet for the Queen.
• Above the portraits, at window level, are copies of six of the Armada tapestries, which hung in the chamber of the House of Lords until their destruction in the 1834 fire.
• The tapestries depicted the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
• The project was put on hold in 1861.
• As of August 2010 , all six paintings are now in their intended places.
• The room also contains a statue of Queen Victoria, seated on a throne.
• She holds a sceptre and a laurel crown, which show that she both governs and rules.
• This figure is flanked by allegorical statues of Justice and Clemency.
• Justice is depicted with a bare sword and an inflexible expression.
• Clemency is depicted showing sympathy and offering an olive branch.
• The sculptural ensemble, made of white marble and carved by John Gibson in 1855.
• It reaches 2. 44 metres (8 ft) in height.
• Its size has long been considered out of proportion with the fittings of the Prince's Chamber.
• The flanking statues ended up in storage between 1955 and 1976.
• The size and location of the group, in the archway opposite the doors to the Royal Gallery indicate that it was meant to be seen from a distance.
• It was designed to symbolically remind the monarch of their royal duties as they would walk down the Royal Gallery on their way to deliver their speech.
• The Chamber of the House of Lords is located in the southern part of the Palace of Westminster.
• The lavishly decorated room measures 13. 7 by 24. 4 metres (45 by 80 ft).
• The benches in the Chamber, as well as other furnishings in the Lords' side of the palace, are coloured red.
• The upper part of the Chamber is decorated by stained glass windows and by six allegorical frescoes representing religion, chivalry and law.
• At the south end of the Chamber are the ornate gold Canopy and Throne; although the Sovereign may theoretically occupy the Throne during any sitting, he or she attends only the State Opening of Parliament.
• Other members of the Royal Family who attend the State Opening use Chairs of State next to the Throne.
• Peers' sons are always entitled to sit on the steps of the Throne.
• In front of the Throne is the Woolsack, an armless red cushion stuffed with wool, representing the historical importance of the wool trade.
• The Woolsack is used by the officer presiding over the House; the Lord Speaker since 2006, but historically the Lord Chancellor or a deputy.
• The House's mace, which represents royal authority, is placed on the back of the Woolsack.
• In front of the Woolsack is the Judges' Woolsack, a larger red cushion that used to be occupied during the State Opening by the Law Lords.
• Prospectively the Supreme Court Justices and other Judges (whether or not members), to represent the Judicial Branch of Government.
• The Table of the House, at which the clerks sit, is in front.
• Members of the House occupy red benches on three sides of the Chamber.
• The benches on the Lord Speaker's right form the Spiritual Side
• The benches on the Lord Speaker's left form the Temporal Side.
• The Lords Spiritual (archbishops and bishops of the established Church of England) all occupy the Spiritual Side.
• The Lords Temporal (nobles) sit according to party affiliation: members of the Government party sit on the Spiritual Side.
• Those of the Opposition sit on the Temporal Side.
• Some peers, who have no party affiliation, sit on the benches in the middle of the House opposite the Woolsack; they are accordingly known as crossbenchers.
• The Lords Chamber is the site of nationally televised ceremonies.
• The most important of which is the State Opening of Parliament.
• The Government's programme for the year and legislative agenda for the forthcoming parliamentary session is outlined during the Speech from the Throne.
• The Commons may not enter the Lords' debating floor; instead, they watch from beyond the Bar of the House, just inside the door.
• Following the Blitz, which destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons, the Lords' chamber was occupied by the Commons.
• The Lords temporarily used the Robing Room during the reconstruction.
• The State Opening Of Parliament was carried out as normal, with the new rooms being used.
• Evidence can still be seen of this today, with damage clearly visible on one of the doors where they were struck by Black Rod.
• Directly north of the Lords Chamber lies the Peers' Lobby, an antechamber where Lords can informally discuss or negotiate matters.
• Members collect messages from the doorkeepers, who control access to the Chamber.
• The Lobby is a square room measuring 12 metres (39 ft) on each side and 10 metres (33 ft) in height.
• One of its main features is the floor centrepiece, a radiant Tudor rose made of Derbyshire marbles and set within an octagon of engraved brass plates.
• The rest of the floor is paved with encaustic tiles featuring heraldic designs and Latin mottoes.
• The walls are faced with white stone and each is pierced by a doorway.
• Above the arches are displayed arms representing the six royal dynasties which ruled England until Queen Victoria's reign (Saxon, Norman, Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart and Hanoverian).
• Between the windows are stained with the arms of the early aristocratic families of England.
• Of the doorways, the one to the south is the most magnificent.
• This doorway leads into the Lords Chamber and sports much gilding and decoration, including the full royal arms.
• It is enclosed by the Brass Gates, a pair of elaborately pierced and studded doors together weighing 1. 5 tonnes.
• The side doors, which feature clocks, open into corridors: to the east extends the Law Lords Corridor, which leads to the libraries, and nearby to the west lies the Moses Room, used for Grand Committees.
• To the north is the vaulted Peers' Corridor, which is decorated with eight murals by Charles West Cope depicting historical scenes from the period around the English Civil War.
• The frescoes were executed between 1856 and 1866.
• Each scene was "specifically chosen to depict the struggles through which national liberties were won".
• Examples include Speaker Lenthall Asserting the Privileges of the Commons Against Charles I when the Attempt was Made to Seize the Five Members, representing resistance against absolute rule.
• Also, the Embarkation of the Pilgrim Fathers for New England, which illustrates the principle of freedom of worship.
• Originally named "Octagon Hall" because of its shape, the Central Lobby is the heart of the Palace of Westminster.
• It lies directly below the Central Tower and forms a busy crossroads between the House of Lords to the south, the House of Commons to the north.
• It also connects, St Stephen's Hall and the public entrance to the west, and the Lower Waiting Hall and the libraries to the east.
• Its location halfway between the two debating chambers has led constitutional theorist Erskine May to describe the Lobby as "the political centre of the British Empire".
• A person standing under the chandelier can see both the Royal Throne and the Speaker's Chair, if all doors are open.
• Constituents may meet their Members of Parliament here, even without an appointment, and this practice is the origin of the term lobbying.
• The hall is also the theatre of the Speaker's Procession, which passes from here on its way to the Commons Chamber before every sitting of the House.
• The Central Lobby measures 18 metres (59 ft) across and 23 metres (75 ft) from the floor to the centre of the vaulted ceiling.
• The panels between the vault's ribs are covered with Venetian glass mosaic displaying floral emblems and heraldic badges
• The bosses in the intersections of the ribs are also carved into heraldic symbols.
• Each wall of the Lobby is contained in an arch ornamented with statues of English and Scottish monarchs.
• On four sides there are doorways, and the tympana above them are adorned with mosaics representing the patron saints of the United Kingdom's constituent nations: Saint George for England, Saint Andrew for Scotland, Saint David for Wales and Saint Patrick for Ireland.
• The other four arches are occupied by high windows, under which there are stone screens; the hall's post office, one of two in the palace, is located behind one of these screens.
• Four bigger-than-life statues of 19th-century statesmen stand in front of the windows.
• One is of four-time prime minister William Gladstone.
• The floor on which they stand is tiled with Minton encaustic tiles in intricate patterns and includes of a passage from Psalm 127 written in Latin.
• The latin passage translates as: "Except the Lord build the House their labour is but lost that build it".
• The East Corridor leads from the Central Lobby to the Lower Waiting Hall.
• Its six panels remained blank until 1910, when they were filled with scenes from Tudor history.
• They were all paid for by Liberal peers and each was the work of a different artist.
• Uniformity was achieved between the frescoes thanks to a common colour palette of red, black and gold and a uniform height for the depicted characters.
• One of the scenes is probably not historical: Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens, depicting the origin of these flowers as emblems of the Houses of Lancaster and York respectively, was taken from Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 1.
• Continuing north from the Central Lobby is the Commons' Corridor.
• It is of almost identical design to its southern counterpart and is decorated with scenes of 17th-century political history between the Civil War and the Revolution of 1688.
• They were painted by Edward Matthew Ward and include subjects like Monk Declaring for a Free Parliament.
• The paintings also depict, The Lords and Commons Presenting the Crown to William III and Mary II in the Banqueting Hall.
• Mirroring the arrangement at the Lords part of the palace, is another antechamber, the Members' Lobby.
• In this room, Members of Parliament hold discussions or negotiations, and are often interviewed by accredited journalists, collectively known as "The Lobby".
• The room is similar to the Peers' Lobby but plainer in design and slightly larger, forming a cube 13. 7 metres (45 ft) on all sides.
• After the heavy damage it sustained in the 1941 bombing, it was rebuilt in a simplified style, something most evident in the floor, which is almost completely unadorned.
• The archway of the door leading into the Commons Chamber has been left unrepaired as a reminder of the evils of war.
• It is now known as the Rubble Arch or Churchill Arch.
• It is flanked by bronze statues of Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George, the prime ministers who led Britain through the Second and First World War respectively.
• A foot of each is conspicuously shiny, a result of a long tradition of MPs rubbing them for good luck before their maiden speech.
• The Lobby contains the busts and statues of most 20th-century prime ministers.
• The Lobby features two large boards where MPs can receive letters and telephone messages, designed for the use of the House and installed in the early 1960s.
• The Chamber of the House of Commons is at the northern end of the Palace of Westminster.
• It was opened in 1950 after the Victorian chamber had been destroyed in 1941 and re-built under the architect Giles Gilbert Scott.
• The Chamber measures 14 by 20. 7 metres (46 by 68 ft).
• Furnishings are plainer than the Lords Chamber.
• The benches, as well as other furnishings in the Commons side of the palace, are coloured green.
• Members of the public are forbidden to sit on the benches.
• Other parliaments in Commonwealth nations, including those of India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have copied the colour scheme under which the Lower House is associated with green, and the Upper House with red.
• At the north end of the Chamber is the Speaker's Chair, a present to Parliament from Australia.
• The current British Speaker's Chair is an exact copy of the Speaker's Chair given to Australia.
• The British Chair is a gift from the United Kingdom Branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association, to celebrate the opening of Provisional Parliament House, Canberra.
• In front of the Speaker's Chair is the Table of the House, at which the clerks sit, and on which is placed the Commons' ceremonial mace.
• The Table was a gift from Canada.
• The dispatch boxes, which front-bench Members of Parliament (MPs) often lean on or rest notes on during Questions and speeches, are a gift from New Zealand.
• Green benches on either side of the House; members of the Government party occupy benches on the Speaker's right.
• Those of the Opposition occupy benches on the Speaker's left.
• There are no cross-benches as in the House of Lords.
• The Chamber is relatively small, and can accommodate only 427 of the 650 Members of Parliament.
• During Prime Minister's Questions and in major debates MPs stand at either end of the House.
• By tradition, the British Sovereign does not enter the Chamber of the House of Commons.
• The last monarch to do so was King Charles I, in 1642.
• The King sought to arrest five Members of Parliament on charges of high treason.
• When he asked the Speaker, William Lenthall, if he had any knowledge of the whereabouts of these individuals, Lenthall replied: "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."
• Since then, in the State Opening of Parliament, when Black Rod slams the door in his or her face.
• Black Rod strikes the door three times with a staff to be admitted and issue the summons from the monarch to the MPs to attend.
• The rebuilt chamber was opened by King George VI on 26 October 1950.
• The two red lines on the floor of the House of Commons are 2. 5 metres (8 ft 2 in) apart, which, by apocryphal tradition, is intended to be just over two sword-lengths.
• It is said that the original purpose of this was to prevent disputes in the House from degenerating into duels.
• There is no record of a time when Members of Parliament were allowed to bring swords into the Chamber.
• Historically only the Serjeant at Arms has been allowed to carry a sword as a symbol of their role in Parliament, plus Black Rod