I've been to a couple of parliaments around the world during my travels - Germany and New Zealand - but funny enough never to the one in my own country. On my visit to London last month, I decided to be a tourist to visit the Parliament and see where our democracy is carried out. Our parliament is officially called the Palace of Westminster because it's located in an area called Westminster in London.
Palace of Westminster
British citizens can arrange a free visit through our MP (Member of Parliament) but they're pretty useless. I emailed a request to my MP a few weeks before my visit, that's over a month ago, she still hasn't responded. It's much quicker to pay the £26 entrance fee, that is £26 more than I paid to visit the parliaments in Germany or New Zealand but I still think it's worth it though.
The parliament building is connected to this iconic building in London - Big Ben. If you see Big Ben, you will find the parliament.
This diagram below will give you an idea of where we will be visiting today. Big Ben is on the left and the Victoria Tower is on the right. In between are the two houses. The House of Lords is in green, that's the upper house, and is often called the Senate in other countries. The House of Common is the orange section next to Victoria Tower. That is where the MPs voted by the public meets and argue debate things that matter to our country and hopefully find a solution to it.
We will start our tour at Westminster Hall in a minute, that's the white horizontal part with an arrow pointing in. From there we'll go to St Stephen's Hall, that's the white vertical part on the diagram, and then to the two Houses. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to take any photos inside the two Houses, so I can't show you what it looks like there.
I can show you what it looks like outside. The Big Ben is on the left, and Victoria Tower on the right. The House of Commons is inside this building here.
Westminster Hall
After an airport style security search, I entered the Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Parliament building that dates back to 1097. This is view from the entrance and it's quite overwhelming. At 73 x 20m, it was the largest hall in England when built, and possibly the largest in Europe. It used to be used for banquets, coronations and as a court room in the old days.
Today it is more well known as the place for lyings in state for the royal family. I remember when I was attending the Hivefest in Amsterdam in September 2022, our last queen had just died. A week after her death, her body was moved here for the public to come and pay their respects. It was the first time there was life TV broadcast of the event for those who couldn't make it to London or didn't want to queue for hours or even overnight to get in. During those 5 days lying in state, about 250 thousand people came here to pay their respects to the Queen. That included David Beckham who started queuing at 2am and queued for 13 hours with the general public.
Back to our tour. I joined a self guided tour and got an audio device so I could walk around at my own pace. I much prefer this than a guided tour. I also had to wear the visitor badge at all times.
The Westminster Hall is a magnificent piece of architecture. It's nearly 1000 years old, and one can really feel what old feels like when you're inside. The hammer beam roof is particularly impressive. This was built in the 14th century, 300 years after the hall was originally built. The roof is made of oak and is 28 meters high. Wooden arches met centrally in a span of 18 metres (60 feet) or more. Source You can see how massive and high Westminster Hall is with the people standing inside. And when you think back a thousand years ago the people didn't have the tools and technology we have today, building this would have been an amazing feat back then.
There's a flight of at the other end of the hall and a big stained glass window. Often the stained glass windows I see are more of a religious nature. This one here commemorates the staff and members of parliament who died in the war. I thought that's a very nice touch because the parliament is a democratic institution for the people.
New Dawn
The entrance to St Stephen's hall is to the left of the big stained glass window. Before we go in, I want to show you this piece of modern glass art installation outside called New Dawn.
The New Dawn was installed in 2016 and marks 150 years since the fight for women's suffrage began. During those years many activists would have lobbied at this very point, the entrance to parliament. All those hand blown glass dots represents those people involved. I think the bright art work is a nice contrast to the rest of the historical building, and located at a very fitting location.
In 1928 all women were eligible to vote in UK but it's beggar's belief why we had to fight for this right in the first place!
St Stephen hall
In 1834 the parliament chapel was burnt down and St Stephen's hall was rebuilt in its place. This is the public's entrance to parliament, hence the significance of installing New Dawn outside. The hall has a very different vibe from Westminster Hall. For a start, it's some 800 years newer. If you have time, you can learn a lot about British history here from the paintings on the wall about major historical events. And then there are 12 statues of notable parliamentarians lined up on both sides of the hall, some with their hands stretched out as if they were welcoming visitors.
The Houses
The other end of St Stephen's Hall leads into the Central Lobby and the heart of parliament. This includes the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Unfortunately no photos were allowed after St Stephens Hall. All I can say it was pretty amazing to walk around parliament, which I only get to see on TV. I even walked inside the Houses, and stood at the very benches where the members normally sit and debate.
I picked up a few visitor leaflets inside, I always like to take some memorabilia with me when I visit places
After thought
Being an ex political studies student, the visit to the Parliament was very interesting for me. From a history and architecture point of view, I like to learn about these topics, and I think immersing yourself in something physical is the best way to do this. If you're ever in London and want to experience this for yourself, you can book your tickets here. https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/
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A pretty cool visit to the parliament buildings.
I always wanted to visit, even if it was just the outside. But my only visit to London years ago, didn’t get me close to it. It is nice seeing it through your eyes today.
A shame the MP never replied. It does look like the entrance fee is worth it. A bit high though.
The ceilings and wooden beams/ structures are awesome. The hall is so large wow. Pretty cool.
I like the self guided tours too, you can spend as long as you want in certain areas to truly observe.
Thanks for sharing Pauline 😊 have a wonderful day.
Here we got more and more snow this week hahaha it is over 63 cm now. ☃️ I did post yesterday photos and a video of me feeding the deer in our garden, if you want to see the views 😉
!LUV
I didn't expect the MP to reply, to be honest, they never do. I think this is one of the places that it's worth going, but just once, wouldn't go back again unless I get in free 😊
64cm of snow!!! I just watched your video, love it!!!
Really, that is rather bad when they just ignore the people. 😳
Yes, i thought the same. Once will be enough. Haha
More snow to come 😁 I love it so far. Especially now wildlife is coming towards the cabin.
Thank you for watching it. Happy to share special moments with you.
Enjoy your day.
!PIZZA
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Thank you kindly 😊 have a lovely day!
!ALIVE
Wow, all those wooden beams! That is just amazing. I've been near the capitol building here in the states, but never inside of it. I've been in our state capitol building. I love how they always try to make them as grand as possible.
Yeah, I was very impressed with Utah and Colorado when I went last year. I think the Capitol buildings are a great place to hang out for tourists especially the impressive ones
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£26!!!! As a place of historical and architectural significance the price seems reasonable, but I don’t think I have ever paid to go into a country or state’s main government building.
Coming from a relatively young country, It is CRAZY to me that people regularly live and work and walk past building that are 500, 800 or 1000 years old. The oldest buildings in my city are from the 1850’s and only a handful still stand.
It’s like you live in an interactive museum! 🥰
It's kind of odd, because many of our best museums are free to enter such as British Museum, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert, Tate Modern to name a few, yet a lot of other buildings charge an entrance fee. I went to Utah and Denver Capitol state buildings last year, and was pleased to find they're all free to enter, plus the decor inside was very impressive.
I get what you mean about buildings being very young in America. I remember I was on a city tour in New York many years ago, when the tour guide introduced us to a 200 year old building, there were a lot of oh's and ah's from the American tourist, fascinated by its age and history 😊
长见识了 😄政治学的学生 感觉会从政噢～
從政一般都無好結果😁
😆这个确实也是 拿X国总统举例
It is stunning! I can't decide what I love more - the fine stone carving of St Stephen hall or the massive wooden ceiling of the Westminster Hall. Fantastic place! Home to visit your country one day ❤️
Come on over!!! I'm sure you will love it here!!!
Ahh, can't wait 💖
Magnificent, beautiful
Thanks
Breathtaking, I really like old buildings, it's so impressive people did this back then, just like you wrote, without any of the tools like cranes we use today.
Building these kind of structures took years and years and often got people killed on the job.
Thanks for sharing!
This is one of the things I love about UK and Europe, there are so many old buildings around and they all tell a story. Plus it's nice to compare building architecture and styles between the countries as well.
a building like that is wasted on the fools who work there. Guy Fawkes nearly got it right LOL
haha!!! I'm sure there are some nice people who work there, just not the ones that got voted in
Apologies to the workers.
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Hiya, @lauramica here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!When I went to London I didn't visited it I now recognise that it's a big shame. The inner part looks amazing 😍
Too many places to visit when you go to London. Did you see Big Ben from the outside?
Phantastic photos
Beautiful and interesting place.
Thanks
Perfect!
they make a collection, don't they? 😁
I am amazed at how beautiful it is inside, I saw this palace for the first time when my dad had to travel to London for the company he worked for (I was indeed small) and there is a photo of him standing on the bridge and the palace and Big Ben in the background. But I am even more amazed by the fact that David Beckham queued for 13 hours to pay his respect to the Queen. 🙌
I read somewhere he could have got in immediately as a VIP, but he chose to queue with the public instead. There were a few famous people who played the VIP card and got slashed afterwards.
Very interesting review and very good photos!
Thanks
What a beautiful place! I couldn’t go there when I traveled because it was under construction. Thanks a lot for sharing!
I remember Big Ben was being restored a few years ago, and it was all wrapped up. That must have been disappointing for tourists back then
MP x from the orange section overslept or misplaced Miss P's mail. Hahahaha... I'm already making a short film that ends in a trip to bear country or silk road country. It's up to you. Hahahahaha
Ha ha!! Let's see your film first and then I'll show you mine 🙃
It's just that I saw you asking grindle about the safety of that place, Bukhara. I'm talking about your film, not mine. 🤣
By the way, I didn't know what you said about David Beckham, nor many of the things you explain here in your post. I love these guided tours. 🙃
I see, I thought you were going to make a film to pre-empt my big trip this year 😂
Travel posts can be very dry and boring if it's just facts and history, I like to add some juicy gossip to keep my readers entertained 😄
What a wonderful tour you have. I heard and watched Big Ben in the movie. This is real and it looks very nice on the inside. You can learn a lot from these pictures and thank you for sharing.
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed the post
!PIZZA
An amazing scenery with Jaw dropping infrastructures... How I wish to witness them with my own eyes🙏🏻.. Anyway, thank you for touring us around! God bless for your future travels..🥰
I hope you have the opportunity to visit London sometime
Lol, its always the same. We travel the world and don´t know much about our own country /surroundings compared to some other countries that we traveled to 😂, but come on Westminster palace you haven´t seen it until now?! I can hardly belive that. It is such a great place to check out. That would be like living in Paris without ever been to Notre Dame 😅. I am glad you made it now and grateful you took us with you on this great tour! Thanks for showing us around Pauline <3
I know, because it's local you think I can always go whenever I want. I went to Bundestag a few years ago, that was very nice, very different from our parliament, and it was free!!!!!
Exactly. Lol, I went to Bundestag once as well. It was free but not very interesting in my opinion 😅😅
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STOPgood evening my brother, I hope you are always healthy and can do your activities as usual. I really enjoy reading your posts❤
What a fascinating day visit! I'm always in awe seeing massive ancient structures like Westminster Hall! It would be quite an achievement if it was built today, for sure an amazing feat so many centuries ago!
I can imagine walking through a place so steeped in history. Your photos capture the magnificence so beautifully!
As for the politicians, they do more heckling than debating😅
Travel is always beautiful, and the beauty of travel becomes even more beautiful with photos.