Houses of Parliament
Wikipedia
summary (downloaded Nov 21 2014):
The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the
House of Commons and the
House of Lords, the two houses of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of
Parliament after its tenants, the Palace lies on the Middlesex bank of the
River
Thames in the
City of Westminster, in central London. Its name, which derives from the
neighbouring
Westminster Abbey, may refer to either of two structures: the Old Palace,
a medieval building complex that was
destroyed by fire in 1834, and its replacement New Palace that stands
today. For ceremonial purposes, the palace retains its original style and status
as a royal residence.
The first royal palace was built on the site in the eleventh century, and
Westminster was the primary London residence of the Kings of England until a
fire destroyed much of the complex in 1512. After that, it served as the home of
Parliament, which had been meeting there since the thirteenth century, and the
seat of the Royal Courts of Justice, based in and around
Westminster Hall. In 1834, an even greater fire ravaged the heavily rebuilt
Houses of Parliament, and the only structures of significance to survive were
Westminster Hall, the Cloisters of St Stephen's, the
Chapel of St Mary Undercroft and the
Jewel
Tower.
The subsequent competition for the reconstruction of the Palace was won by
architect
Charles Barry and his design for a building in the
Perpendicular Gothic style. The remains of the Old Palace (with the
exception of the detached Jewel Tower) were incorporated in its much larger
replacement, which contains over 1,100 rooms organised symmetrically around two
series of courtyards. Part of the New Palace's area of 3.24 hectares (8 acres)
was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its principal façade, the
266-metre (873 ft) river front. Barry was assisted by
Augustus W. N. Pugin, a leading authority on Gothic architecture and style,
who provided designs for the decoration and furnishings of the Palace.
Construction started in 1840 and lasted for thirty years, suffering great delays
and cost overruns, as well as the death of both leading architects; works for
the interior decoration continued intermittently well into the twentieth
century. Major conservation work has been carried out since, to reverse the
effects of London's air pollution, and extensive repairs took place after the
Second World War, including the reconstruction of the Commons Chamber following
its bombing in 1941.