Parliament building in London. Palace of Westminster (description)

The adornment of London and the seat of parliament is Westminster Palace, which stretches along the banks of the Thames. It is curious that the huge neo-Gothic splendor overshadows its small part by the factor of fame - the tower of St. Stephen or Big Ben.

In 1834, the predecessor of the palace flared up, only the crypt under the chapel of St. Stephen and Westminster Hall remained from the fire, on the basis of which a new building was rebuilt in 1840-1860. Subsequently, he got it, but even during the attack by German bombers in 1941, the lucky one Westminster Hall survived.

What is so special about the hall, which does not burn in the fire and is not afraid of bombs? Proportionality, completeness, intricacy of carving. Over the years, the tree darkened, and the silver oozing through the stained-glass windows was framed by semi-darkness. They say, no matter how hot it is outside the hall, but inside without a jacket you can freeze.

Perhaps it is worth talking about the "untouchable" in more detail. The building, built in the 11th century and redrawn in the 14th century, reached 28 meters in height and occupied 1.8 thousand "squares".

Within the Middle Ages the structure in Western Europe had practically no analogues... What's so special about him? For example, overlap: the roof was not supported by pillars. This "mechanism" cannot be described in detail, but in short, the oak rafters were fixed with brackets moved forward at a decent distance. A similar technique was used in the construction of residential buildings and parish churches in the country; it can be safely called an achievement of English architecture.

Crossing the threshold of the hall - you take a step into the past... Once the parliament began to sit here, at the end of the 13th century the House of Commons moved into the building, then the Supreme Court of England "lodged" in the hall for 5 centuries in a row, and coronation banquets were also held here. Within the walls of Westminster Hall, Thomas More, Guy Fawkes, Charles the First, Kilmanrock, Lovat and Balmerino heard the death sentences, and Oliver Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector of the Republic. True, 8 years passed, and the remains of the lord were exhumed, and the head was displayed on the roof of Westminster Hall. But that's a completely different story ...

In the 19th century, a new building of the Court appeared, the last coronation in the hall of the abbey took place in 1832, a little earlier the book and cloth merchants who had revived the hall from the end of the 17th century were driven out of the building. Westminster Hall was connected to the new parliament building using the St Stephen's portal.

It would seem that, house of Commons and for many years and her fame thundered far beyond the borders of England, and got his own residence to her not right away... At first, the members of the House had to "talk" in Westminster Hall, which the monks-owners shared with them. Finally, in the 16th century, the parliament got its own "corner" in the chapel of St. Stephen, which for this reason was equipped with galleries and benches, which radically changed the hall. True, the way to the chapel, one way or another, ran through the hall. Perhaps the members of the Supreme Court were constantly annoyed. This did not bother the Lords of the House of Commons, the idyll was destroyed by the fire of 1834. There was nowhere to sit.

A year later, it was decided to build a new one on the ashes of the old. there is interesting theory as to why the parliament was erected right on the river bank for a reason. Indeed, even with a strong desire, the crowd of revolutionaries would not surround the building, unless the rebels would have a talent for walking on water. The Elizabethan (Gothic) style, characteristic of English architecture of the late 16th century, was taken as a basis.

As a result, out of 97 options, the 91st, developed Charles Berry... The result caused a significant resonance in society, but no matter what anyone said, the building immediately turned into one of the main attractions of the city. Harmonious proportion, coupled with classical severity, sweeping facades and beauty of the outlines, are eye-catching today. It is impossible not to notice a small flaw - the asymmetry of the location of the Victoria and Big Ben towers, which, in combination with the central turret with a spire, seem to hold back the building that occupied 3.2 hectares. It seems that if it weren't for them, the palace would cover the whole of London!

140-meter victoria Tower is preceded by the royal portal to Parliament, and the 98-meter st. Stephen's tower equipped with a clockwork and a bell named Big Ben weighing 13.5 tons! During the sessions, the national flag flies over the first tower, and the second is caught out of the darkness by a searchlight. Three kilometers of corridors, hundreds of staircases, more than a thousand rooms, a complex layout - is already impressive, but you can't get by with "bare" facts. Chambers of Lords and Commons, ceremonial halls, voting rooms, libraries, refectory, utility rooms - Berry managed to calculate with pinpoint precision what exactly and where exactly should be located, which corridor to connect with and what to adjoin. Bravo to the architect!

In the northern part Parliament was the House of Lords, the Royal Gallery, which included a room where the monarch was dressed, and a waiting room, in which members of the House argued before making decisions of a private order. In the southern partthe building housed the House of Commons, its lobby, the voting room and the speaker's office. From both parts of parliament, the lords fell through the corridors to the central hall: petitions were considered here, press conferences were held, tourists and curious townspeople scurried. From this hall you can get to St. Stephen's hall, which appeared on the site of the burnt chapel, from here you can clearly see the interior of Westminster Hall.

Berry owes much to Pugin, whose imagination gave birth to the ornate carvings on the palace's facades and towers. Augustus Pugin I was also engaged in interior decoration, in fact I did not know the measure, and therefore there are rooms in which there is no place for "living". All wood, velvet, mosaics, frescoes, wallpaper and niches. The floors are covered with tiles of cinnamon, blue and yellow. The patterns are small, overly detailed, the colors are juicy. The bourgeoisie cried with delight, and modern visitors want to squint - dazzling in their eyes. Alas, mastery is lost behind congestion.

To the houses of lords got all the best: on the ceilings heraldry of birds, flowers, animals and others like them. On the walls there is a wooden cladding, above which there are frescoes, 18 bronze baron statues occupy interwindow niches, from where they "look" at the canopy of the royal throne, rows of benches in red leather and the place of the Lord Chancellor, reminiscent of interesting tradition... The Chancellor, clad in a black and gold robe, always sat on a bale full of wool, the source of British wealth. The bag has long since migrated to the museum, and the tradition is alive. The President of the House pulls on a white wig and opens the meeting, seated on the soft. On the north side of the room there is a bronze railing indicating the "seat" of the members of the House of Commons and their speaker during sessions.

During the Second World War, the part of the palace that belonged to the House of Commons was damaged. During the reconstruction, the old Gothic style was preserved. But it was not possible to repeat the carving on stone and wood, the decorative elements that weaved all the details of the interior into a single picture. And the appearance of modern spotlights completely dispelled the spell. In fairness, it should be noted that even with the former elegance House of Commons was inferior to House of Lords... What hasn't changed are oak paneling on the walls and green leather on the benches.

By the way, at the beginning of the 17th century, Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the parliament, since then on November 5, on an annual basis, a strada, dressed up in an old fashion, is armed with halberds and lanterns, going to search the corridors and basements of the palace. Everyone understands that no one will find powder barrels, but the tradition of exposing the gunpowder plot has been observed for 3 centuries.

Another tradition has survived to this day. If the meeting lasts until late at night, then the question echoes from the palace walls "Who's Going Home?"... Previously, the streets of London were not daring to call the streets safe, and members of the House did not risk independent walks, forming into "flocks". Today London is flooded with electric light, and solid cars await parliamentarians, but as before, "Who is going home?"

The brightest tradition can be called opening ceremony of the parliamentary session, in which the queen and all members of the government and both chambers take part.

Britain is administered from the Palace of Westminster in London. This is also known as the Houses of Parliament. Parliament is made up of two chambers - the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The members of the House of Lords are not elected: they qualify to sit in the House because they are bishops of the Church of England, aristocrats who have inherited their seats from their fathers, people with titles. There has been talk of reform in this century because many Britons think that this system is undemocratic.

The House of Commons, by contrast, has 650 seats which are occupied by Members of Parliament (MPs) who are elected by the British public. The United Kingdom is divided into constituencies, each of which has an elected MP in the House of Commons.

Each of the major political parties appoints a representative (candidate) to compete for each seat. Smaller parties may have a candidate in only a few constituencies. There may be five or more parties, fighting for one seat, but only one person - the candidate who gets the greatest number of votes - can win.

Some parties win a lot of seats and some win very few, or none at all. The Queen, who is the Head of State, opens and closes Parliament. All new laws are debated (discussed) by MPs in the Commons, then debated in the Lords, and finally signed by the Queen.

All three are part of Parliament in Britain.

Translation of the text: Parliament. The Palace of Westminster. - Parliament. Westminster Palace.

The British government is located at Westminster Palace in London. Westminster Palace is also known as the House of Parliament. Parliament consists of two chambers - the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Members of the House of Lords are not elected: they are members of Parliament because they are bishops of the English Church and aristocrats who inherited their seats from titled fathers. There is talk of reforming this system in this century, as many Britons do not consider such a system democratic.

The House of Commons, in contrast, has 650 seats. These seats are held by Members of Parliament elected by the British people. The United Kingdom is divided into constituencies, each of which has a representative (Member of Parliament) in the House of Commons.

Each of the main political parties appoints a representative (candidate) to compete for a seat in parliament. Smaller parties can only have candidates in a few constituencies. Five or more parties can compete for one seat, but only one person can win - the candidate receiving the largest number of votes.

Some parties get a lot of seats, while others get little or no seats. The Queen, the head of state, opens and closes parliament. All laws are discussed by members of the House of Commons, then by members of the House of Lords and finally signed by the Queen.

Parliament in Britain consists of: the Queen, the House of Commons, the House of Lords.

References:
1.100 Topics of Oral English (Kaverina V., Boyko V., Zhidkikh N.) 2002
2. English for schoolchildren and university applicants. Oral exam. Topics. Reading texts. Exam questions. (Tsvetkova I.V., Klepalchenko I.A., Myltseva N.A.)
3. English, 120 Topics. English, 120 conversational topics. (Sergeev S.P.)

It is the hallmark of the capital of Great Britain and the seat of its parliament, which consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The architectural complex, also known as Parliament, is located in the Westminster area. This masterpiece of architecture includes historical london sights, the main of which are Westminster Hall and the Big Ben and Victoria towers.

Palace of Westminster, construction history

The first Westminster Palace, according to the surviving documents, was built in an unsettled and wetland area in 1042. It was erected by order of the rulers of the kingdom instead of the Tower, which, with the expansion of the city, somehow incredibly ended up in the poorest quarter of the capital.

One has only to imagine what the authorities of the capital experienced among the poor, who still "smelled badly." This state of affairs simply forced to move the main building of the city away from the impoverished "rabble" of London. How could monarchs rule a country in such a terrible place? The new residence in a swampy area, from the windows of which it was not so clearly visible the position in which England found itself in those distant times, was almost completely completed by 1042.

Westminster Palace was constantly growing: 45 years after the completion of its construction, for the son of the legendary William the Conqueror, it was decided to add Westminster Hall to the architectural structure. The son of the great commander, who won many victories over enemies in his lifetime, was called William the Red II.

It was this man who decided that the palace must necessarily have the most luxurious hall, in which it would not be a shame to arrange magnificent receptions in front of representatives of other countries and even conduct coronation ceremonies. In addition to these ceremonies, by order of William the Red II, the highest judicial body of England - the Supreme Court of the country - began to constantly hold meetings at Westminster Hall.

Westminster Palace is interesting not only for its architecture. In the distant 13th century, a very important document was signed here, which played a key role in the formation of the political structure of England. It is on this document that at the moment in many prestigious colleges students are taught how a modern, secure democratic state should look like and how to get rid of bureaucracy and tyranny. It was in the 13th century that King John Landless of England, under pressure from the public, signed a decree that went down in history under the name Magna Carta.

Naturally, there was no talk of any anarchy in him. All the "liberties" consisted in the fact that the king was deprived of the right to rule the country alone: \u200b\u200bsince the 13th century, many important decisions concerning foreign and domestic policy were made by the parliament, which was elected by the people. Monarchs have become only a kind of symbol of the country, something like a coat of arms or a flag.

Even taxes were introduced and calculated by parliament, which was simply salvation for the impoverished population of the country. For this reason, the Palace of Westminster can be considered not only a "visiting card" of London, its main attraction, an architectural and historical monument, but also a symbol of the constitutional parliamentary monarchy.

We can talk about the construction of Westminster Palace and its expansion for an infinitely long time: the people constantly supported the improvement of the building, because the parliament sat there, which at one time saved it from the tyranny of the monarchs. However, in 1834, almost all of Westminster Palace, built in 1042, burned to the ground. From the former majestic building, where the Parliament of England sat, there are two buildings: the same Westminster Hall and the Tower of Jewels.

Rebuilding the parliament building was an urgent matter: immediately after the fire, the British government announced a competition for the best plan for the new Palace of Westminster. It was won without much difficulty by Charles Barry, who presented a grandiose and unique project.

True, Barry was well aware that it was impossible for him to cope with all the work alone, so he attracted Augustus Welby Pugin to cooperation, with whom he was building the very Westminster Palace, the view of which any tourist who visited the capital of England can enjoy today.

According to Charles Barry's plan, it was decided to build a new building for Parliament in the neo-Gothic (new Gothic style) style. To say that the construction of Westminster Palace took place in record time and "without a hitch and a hitch" would be untrue. There were difficulties, and they constantly arose before the architects and the huge number of workers involved in the construction of the object. The site had to be prepared for more than three years, and the construction of Westminster Palace itself took just over 48 years (from 1840 to 1888).

Over such a long period of time, not only Westminster Palace was rebuilt, but also the Tower of St. Stephen, which can be found in our time on a huge number of posters, calendars and other printed materials - the same famous and legendary Big Ben, which undoubtedly knows about almost every civilized inhabitant of our planet.

St. Stephen's Tower, or Big Ben

Despite the fact that the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben were built relatively recently, there is still no exact proof of where the name of St. Stephen's Tower "Big Ben" came from. There are only versions, and versions, as you know, are quite easy to refute.

Some historians claim that Benjamin Hall, who was affectionately called Ben, was the head of the construction of Westminster Palace and St Stephen's Tower. Others claim that Big Ben got its "nickname" in honor of the popular boxer. However, the most interesting and, at the same time, the most confusing version says that the tower was named after one representative of parliament. His name was also Benjamin and his last name was Hall. He went to the podium and began to explain for a long time what to call the clock tower.

He spoke for so long that he himself became entangled in historical facts, and no one listened to his muttering. Finally, after an hour and a half, he completed his tirade, in which there was no meaning as such. The parliament breathed a sigh of relief and one of its members asked the speaker a question: "So what do you offer in the end?" Benjamin Hall was confused, and someone shouted: "Let's call the tower in honor of this long and boring speech - Big Ben!" The joke was received with a bang and the tower got its name. Which of these three versions to believe, everyone decides for himself. It is worth repeating, not a single official evidence in favor of this or that opinion has been found these days.

It took quite a long time before the clock was installed on St. Stephen's Tower. The delays were connected with the demands of the London authorities. The clock should lag behind or go forward by no more than 1 second per day. All the most authoritative watchmakers simply laughed at this condition: the technology of the 19th century simply did not allow the creation of a giant watch that had to be placed on a high tower and run with the utmost precision.

Only Edmund Beckett Denison undertook the development of the plan, who managed to fulfill all the requirements in five years. Big Ben's clockwork did not lag more than a second a day. By the way, the weight of the watch, designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, is just over 5,000 kilograms.

The height of the Tower of St. Stephen or Big Ben is almost 96 and a half meters. Many might think that this is the tallest building in the architectural ensemble called Westminster Palace. However, this opinion is far from the truth, the tallest tower of the palace is the Victoria Tower, its height is 102 meters. Some tourist brochures indicate a different figure - 98.4 meters, but it has nothing to do with reality.

The tower, named after Victoria, was built so huge with only one purpose, to fit the entire archive of documents considered by the Parliament of England. Big Ben and Victoria Tower, however, like other rooms, are made entirely of refractory materials: the fire of 1834 at Westminster Palace will forever remain in the memory of Londoners.

During the Second World War, Westminster Palace in London became the main target for the fascist pilots. To hit him with a bomb was an honor for every ass of the Luftwaffe. For this reason, the main symbol of London, where Parliament sat and where Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his fiery speeches, was seriously damaged. The palace of Westminster, which, as mentioned above, is a symbol of the constitutional parliamentary monarchy, was completely reconstructed in 1950.

This is not to say that the building suffered only slightly, on the contrary, the damage to Westminster Palace was serious: it was possible to restore it completely in 5 years only thanks to the huge budget and the heroism of the British workers. Alas, bombs hit the legendary Big Ben. The clockwork "gave a serious malfunction", it began to lag as much as 2 seconds a day. The British eliminated the problem quite quickly and simply: they only did that they attached a coin to a huge pendulum. The weight of just one penny influenced the Big Ben clock and it ran again with utmost precision.

Architecture and landmarks of Westminster Palace

Westminster Palace stretches far along the banks of the Thames and covers an area of \u200b\u200bmore than three hectares. Despite its size, the Parliament building does not overwhelm with its enormous size, but on the contrary, caresses the eye with the lightness and beauty of its majestic romantic forms, although it has elements of late Gothic and some asymmetry of the silhouette and individual details.

Outside, it is crowned with countless small turrets, and its walls are adorned with lancet windows, lovely rosettes and lace-trimmed stone cornices and windows. The Parliament is especially beautiful in the evenings, when its towers and spiers, flooded with the light of searchlights, stand out with a fantastic crown against the dark sky.

11 courtyards, each of which is unique, just over 100 staircases, corridors with a total length of more than five kilometers and 1,200 rooms - where else can you find such a scale and such magnificence in the world? The area of \u200b\u200bthe palace is huge, but thanks to the neo-Gothic style, it does not seem like a massive bulk, on the contrary, it creates the impression of "lightness" and organically fits into modern London. Although, it would be more correct to say that modern London is in harmony with Westminster Palace.

Parliament, which is perhaps the most famous in the entire world, consists of two houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. They are located at different ends of the building and are connected by several giant halls at once, between which there are also corridors. It will take a long time to get from one chamber of Westminster Palace to another. However, a journey through these halls and corridors turns into a real tour of the museum!

The walls of the rooms connecting the chambers are decorated with wall paintings. Most of the paintings, which depict almost the entire history of Foggy Albion, since the reign of King Arthur, belong to the brushes of the most famous artists in the world. They, according to art critics and numerous guides, have no price - they are priceless.

Of greatest interest in the Palace of Westminster is the interior of the House of Lords and the premises associated with it by the parliamentary ceremony: the Royal Gallery for ceremonial processions; the room in which the queen is dressed for her solemn appearance in parliament; waiting rooms for exchanging views and making private decisions and others.

The ceiling of the House of Lords is completely covered with images of heraldic birds, animals, flowers, etc .; its walls are lined with carved wooden panels, above which are images of six frescoes. Eighteen bronze statues of barons who won the king to sign the Magna Carta stand in the niches between the windows, gazing at the inlaid canopy of the royal throne, at the rows of benches covered with bright red leather, and at the famous "wool sack" of the Lord Chancellor.

A few centuries ago, this sack, covered with red cloth, was stuffed with wool, personifying the emblem of English industry. Nowadays, a genuine "bag of wool" has become a museum piece, but the tradition has remained: the President of the House of Lords, dressed in black and gold robes and a fluffy white wig, opens the meeting, sitting on a soft red sofa without a back.

The House of Lords is adjoined by an entrance hall, decorated with the same sumptuous luxury as the hall of the upper chamber itself. The north doors from it lead into a corridor that ends at the octagonal Central Hall. In niches around the entire hall there are statues of English kings.
The House of Commons Hall does not have that stately pomp that is present in the House of Lords. This is not a very large room, trimmed with dark oak, and the dark green benches in it, running in parallel rows, leave only a small passage in the middle.

Members of the lower house of parliament during their sessions can even sit in a hat, but the chairman (speaker) is always dressed solemnly: in an old black suit, stockings and shoes, and his head, according to the old tradition, is covered with an indispensable wig. In the hall of the House of Commons, in front of the speaker's chair, there is a large table on which lies a mace - a symbol of the speaker's power, and at the table are three secretaries in judicial robes and wigs.

Another long tradition has been preserved in the English Parliament since the 17th century. In 1605, a group of conspirators dug under the building of Westminster Palace and laid gunpowder there in order to blow up all the deputies together with the king at the moment of a solemn meeting. The conspiracy was discovered, and Guy Fawkes, who led the "gunpowder conspiracy", was executed along with his accomplices. But every year the guards, dressed in old costumes, with lanterns and halberds in their hands, search all the cellars and nooks of the palace.

The lanterns of the guards without candles, since the lower floors of the Parliament are well lit with electricity. It is known in advance that they will not find any barrels of gunpowder, especially since the new palace was built two and a half centuries after the “gunpowder conspiracy”. But every year, on November 5, the guards, led by the bailiff of the chamber ("the bearer of the black rod"), go around the basement and check if there are any new intruders ...

In official documents, the Parliament building is still designated as "Westminster Palace" or "New Westminster Palace" and has the status of a royal palace.
When the court left the Palace of Westminster, which housed the Royal Court from the time of Edward the Confessor until the reign of Henry III, and moved to Whitehall Palace, Westminster remained two of the most important inhabitants - the parliament and the judiciary.


The courts held their sessions in Westminster Hall, and the parliament had to huddle in two rooms: the House of Commons occupied the chapel of St. Stephen, and the House of Lords - the former court house by motions, dissolved in 1641.
Old Westminster Palace (in the background - Westminster Abbey) from the side of the River Thames.

From the late eighteenth century until the accession to the throne of William IV, there was talk of the need for a new building for Parliament; Sir John Soane, the architect of the Bank of England building, presented his project for discussion, and other architects followed his example, but the conversations were in vain.

But on one of the nights in 1834, the problem was resolved in just a few hours. Someone sent to burn the wooden dies from which the Treasury notes were printed overdid the fire; flames, fanned by the sharp October wind, in the blink of an eye engulfed the park and ancient buildings, from which only smoldering brands soon remained.

Fire brigades pulled up to the site of the fire, but the flames turned out to be too strong for them to be able to cope with it. However, the descendants are still in debt to the valiant London firefighters who saved Westminster Hall that terrible night.

When young Victoria ascended the throne, she was surprised to find out that her parliament had no refuge. It took several years to clear the area after the fire and to hold a competition among architectural projects; There was only one condition for the contestants - the new building should be in the Gothic or Elizabethan style.

Victoria Tower(view from the cloister courtyard of Westminster Abbey).

Since the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral in England, there has been no larger or more magnificent building; its sprawling riverfront façade, with the elegant Victoria Tower above the main building at one end and the Clock Tower at the other, is an architectural masterpiece immediately recognized worldwide as "quintessentially London."

No other view of London, even with St Paul's Cathedral, has been so often depicted on the canvases of foreign artists. Preference was given to the project of Charles Barry.

Parliament Square, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Hall (left), Victoria Tower (right).

Clock tower, also known as Big Ben, was officially renamed to Elizabeth Tower in honor of the reigning queen of Great Britain, Elizabeth II. Big Ben, by the way, is not a clock, but a large bell named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who served as the chief commissioner for public works during the years when the bells were hung from the tower. Its special, low and rolling hum (connected, as they say, with a crack in the metal) penetrates literally every corner of the globe.

A narrow spiral staircase of three hundred and seventy-four steps leads up; if the bells begin to ring during the ascent, the stone slabs tremble.

Westminster Hall - what's left of the old Palace of Westminster.

It is believed that the colossal oaks, from the wood of which this majestic ceiling is made, sprouted from acorns no later than the sixth century. If this is true, then the ceiling of Westminster Hall is one of the oldest and most venerable architectural details not only in England, but throughout the world.

Acorns sprouted in England, shrouded in the darkness of the Dark Ages. It was the time of Celtic saints and tiny monasteries like Iona and Lindisfarne, the time of the Viking gangs, who were fighting their way to the ruins of ancient Roman settlements; this was England, in which the ringing of the bell calling for prayer and the cry of the seagull were often drowned out by the screams of the rabble in horned helmets who sailed to rob and kill, fill the drakkars with prey and return home across the North Sea.

For centuries, the Saxons and Normans have driven deer and hunted wild boars and wolves in the very spot where Westminster Hall now stands; here they were making love and having feasts. Meanwhile, the oaks grew, becoming thicker in girth and casting an ever thicker shadow, and the world around was changing, the Middle Ages came, and in 1397 the foresters of King Richard II came here, looking for the oldest oaks in Sussex to restore the roof of the royal palace in Westminster ... They cut down mighty trees - the very trees that were called old already during the reign of Alfred the Great (the Anglo-Saxon king).

Parliament Square - a large square in the center of Westminster, created in 1868 in order to streamline traffic near Westminster Palace. Parliament Square has a symbolic layout and embodies all branches of government. On the east side, the legislative branch is represented by the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster), on the north side of the executive branch is Whitehall, on the west - the judiciary is personified by the building of the Supreme Court, and on the south the center of spiritual power is Westminster Abbey.

Methodist Central Hall - Westminster Central Hall or Methodist Central Hall in Parliament Square - a public building intended for the meetings of the Methodist Church. It was built in 1912 in the French Renaissance style. The large hall is crowned with a huge dome, this room is considered the second largest in the world in terms of capacity, at the same time it can accommodate 2,352 people.

Building to the right of Westminster Abbey.

Buckingham House - the official London residence of the British monarchs - became a royal palace, so to speak, inevitably; it is a perfect illustration of the typical English reluctance to build grand palaces.

The area on which Buckingham Palace stands was occupied by mulberry plantations during the reign of James I; Yakov believed that silkworm breeding "is able to rid the people of idleness and the vices it generates." However, this theory died with Jacob, and a roadside tavern appeared on the site of the plantation, to which the gentlemen of Charles II brought their ladies and treated them to pies with mulberry berries.
In the etchings from Queen Anne's time, we see a pretty red-brick Dutch square house; two semicircular colonnades connect it with the stables and outbuildings. In front of the house there is a wide courtyard with a fountain, an iron fence and a wrought-iron gate, decorated with a crown and the coat of arms of the Duke of Buckingham - a garter and St. George.

Looking out of the windows of the top floor, the duke saw the alley of elms and lindens - the current Mall. In the distance towered the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, surrounded by the spiers of the churches of the City, and a little closer and to the right, beyond the meadows and park, was the bell tower of Westminster. Looking at Mall, the Duke had a view of a long canal and duck backwater, dug out by order of Charles II; today it is a lake in St. James Park.

Talking about the new house in a letter to a friend, the duke said that under the very windows there was a patch of forest where blackbirds and nightingales are found. Immediately after the coronation, Victoria moved to this palace, and she also rebuilt it; the first order of the queen concerned the installation of a ceremonial throne in Buckingham Palace.

A crowd awaiting a rehearsal for the parade marking the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Now let's just walk around London. As I mentioned earlier, until you find yourself near a famous landmark, you will not realize that you are in London. It is a very green city.

Although, no doubt, the spirit of a kind of aristocracy reigns here, that you will not be deceived anyway :)

The entire city (as well as all other cities in Great Britain) is decorated with flags dedicated to the anniversary of the Queen's coronation.

One evening we went in search of King's Cross station, from which Harry Potter was leaving for Hogwarts from the magic platform 9¾. There is a more remarkable building next to this station. station Sant Pancras (station of Saint Pancratius).

Architecturally, the station consists of the main premises - the landing stage, enclosed in the facades of the neo-Gothic building "Midland Grand Hotel" (now the Renaissance Hotel).

But here we go into king's Cross station (King "s Cross -" Crossroads of Kings ").

On the top floor of the station, under the station clock, there is a giant bronze sculpture of a young couple "Meeting Place".

The Palace of Westminster has 1200 rooms, 100 stairs and 5 kilometers of corridors. Anyone can observe the work of the House of Commons and the House of Lords - the premises of Parliament are open all week at different times of the day. Get in line at St. Stephen's Gate and after passing through several security checkpoints, you can arrive at the Visitors' Gallery.

In August and September, when Parliament is closed, you can take a guided tour of the entire building.

Of the palace towers, the most famous is the Elizabeth Tower, most often called Big Ben, although this is actually the name of the 13-ton bell that rings in the chime system. Big Ben is known all over the world, and the tower is a universally recognized symbol of London. Perhaps the best view of the parliament building is from the southern side, from the river, and at night the illuminated towers and spiers look extremely romantic.

History

In the 11th century, Edward the Confessor built the first Palace of Westminster on the banks of the Thames. All the monarchs lived here until Henry VIII, who had to move from Westminster after the fire. Since then, the parliament has been located here. In 1834, the old palace was again almost completely burned down, leaving only the Palace Hall and the Jewel Tower. After the fire, it was decided to rebuild the complex, and as a result, the building acquired its present appearance with the famous Gothic style spiers.