The Palace of Westminster was established by King Canute in the early-11th century and much expanded by Edward the Confessor after his coronation in 1042. After the Norman Conquest, William I adopted Westminster to help validate his new regime and his son, William Rufus, built the great hall (Westminster Hall). At the time of its construction, this hall was the largest of its kind in Europe and remains so to this day.
Under King Henry III Westminster became increasingly important as a central hub of royal power. He had a set of splendid apartments built which included the Painted Chamber, an enormous rectangular room which housed the monarch’s state bed. The bedroom’s decoration was so detailed that it took over 60 years to paint. Although much degraded and damaged over the centuries, the Painted Chamber survived for more than 600 years until it was demolished in the catastrophic fire of 1834.
The medieval palace’s other focal point was the magnificent St Stephen’s Chapel. First mentioned in 1184, it was rebuilt by Edward I in the mid-13th century to rival the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, before being remodelled by Edward III.
In the Middle Ages parliament frequently met in Westminster Abbey’s octagonal Chapter House – close to the Palace of Westminster -but in 1547 Edward VI closed St Stephen’s College and gave the Commons the chapel as their permanent home. When the MPs moved in, they sat in the choir stalls and made speeches to each other across the chapel’s central aisle. This arrangement may have encouraged the development of the two-party system of government versus opposition with which we are familiar today.
After the fire a competition was held for a new design and Sir Charles Barry’s was chosen from a total of 97 entries. Barry’s vision for Westminster in a Perpendicular Gothic style was in harmony with the surviving buildings and was also carefully designed to serve the day-to-day needs and workings of parliament. All in all the construction of the new palace took some 30 years. Its sumptuous interior decoration was the work of Augustus Welby Pugin, a gifted 23-year-old Roman Catholic architect and draughtsman. Westminster’s new design was so successful that it not only influenced the designs of town halls, law courts and schools throughout the British Empire, but it also came to be recognized globally as an architectural masterpiece.
Today, after all these centuries, the Palace of Westminster remains at the heart of UK government. It contains over 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases and some 4.8 kilometres (three miles) of passageways which are spread over four floors. Despite being over 170 years old, the palace still functions smoothly, acting as a backdrop for both the cut and thrust of modern politics and royal ceremonial life, such as the state opening of parliament. Still officially a royal residence after almost a thousand years, the Palace of Westminster was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, as a seminal example of neo-Gothic architecture.
The two-house system
The purpose of parliament is to govern the country in the monarch’s name and this falls to the largest party in the Commons (or a coalition of parties as at present). Legislation once passed by the Commons goes on to the Lords. The upper house can scrutinize and delay legislation, but since the Parliament Act of 1911, the Lords cannot reject it. The government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only so long as he or she retains its support.
Big Ben in focus
Surviving the Blitz
During the course of World War II, the Palace of Westminster was hit by German bombs on 14 separate occasions. The worst raid took place on the night of 10 May 1941, when the palace took at least 12 hits and three people were killed. An incendiary bomb struck the chamber of the House of Commons and set it on fire, while another set the roof of Westminster Hall alight. The firefighters could not save both and so the decision was taken to rescue the historically important hall. In this they were successful, but the abandoned Commons Chamber was completely gutted, as was the Members’ Lobby. A bomb also struck the Lords Chamber, but luckily it went through the floor without exploding. The Elizabeth Tower (which houses Big Ben) was hit by a small bomb or shell just below the roof line and it suffered much damage as a result. All the glass in the south dial was blown out, but the hands and bells were not affected – amazingly, despite the explosion, the clock continued to keep time accurately. The Commons Chamber was rebuilt after the war by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The reconstruction was in a simplified version of the old chamber’s style, and it is Scott’s chamber -not Augustus Pugin’s – that we know today.