The history of the Palace of Westminster began more than nine hundred years ago when, by order of King Edward (in 1042) this structure was built. If you want to visit the oldest part of the castle, which has been preserved from those times (Westminster Hall), then you should go on a tour from August 6 to mid-September, when parliamentarians working in this building (and they have been sitting there for many generations, from the thirteenth centuries) are on vacation.
The rest of the Palace of Westminster does not differ in such long periods of existence, because in the 40s of the 19th century, almost the entire building was destroyed, and during the Second World War the palace, restored in 1888, was subjected to massive bombing, which also led to the loss of many parts of the building. Of the ancient chambers, only the Tower of Jewels, which was rebuilt in the fourteenth century to store the coins and jewelry of Edward the Third, has survived.
Many people on the planet know the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster (dedicated to St. Stephen), which is called Big Ben and is the hallmark of London and the UK as a whole. At first, Big Ben was called a heavy bell (weighing about 16 tons), but then this tower was called his name.
In addition to the bell, a clock with a dial diameter of about 9 meters is installed here. At the time of its creation, the clock mechanism was considered a miracle of engineering technology, because had high accuracy (deviation of not more than one second per day in one direction or another). After the bombing of German aviation, this value increased to two seconds, therefore, to harmonize the progress on the pendulum of the clock (four meters long), one penny coin lies.
The modern purpose of the Palace of Westminster is to be the seat of two houses of Parliament. In the House of Lords you can see many ancient works of famous masters who have adorned this hall for centuries. It is also interesting to know that the speaker (Lord Chancellor) is not sitting in an armchair, but on a bag of wool that was once exported by England around the world. Therefore, it can be argued that this country is very careful about its traditions.
The House of Commons of the Palace of Westminster is somewhat more modest. But here everything is also riddled with history. For example, the opposition party always sits on chairs on the left side, between the rows of benches there are lines with an intermediate distance of two sword lengths (so that parliamentarians could not get each other with cold steel during debates in past centuries). Spectators and the press, for whom there are places on balconies, can come to a meeting of the chamber.
The Palace of Westminster, the pictures of which are presented in the article, despite its large sizes (about 1.2 thousand rooms, hundreds of stairs, five kilometers of corridors and almost a dozen courtyards), looks easy and elegant, thanks to special architectural solutions. This effect is achieved through vertical lines, turrets, large windows, which allows the building to decorate the Thames embankment for many centuries and attract many tourists every year.
