Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster



Palace of Westminster

Introduction

Westminster is one of those unmissable (and not to be missed) sites that you just stumble across when you come to London and that you can´t escape - you come into London´s centre and there it is. However, it is also very interesting and should be visited even if it were far off the beaten track. Of course it isn´t, as the millions of other visitors easily attest to. Westminster Palace, rebuilt from the year 1840 on the site of important medieval remains, is a fine example of neo-Gothic architecture. (Riding, Christine; Riding, Jacqueline, 2000, 34-67)

Cultural heritage

The site - which also comprises the small medieval Church of Saint Margaret, built in Perpendicular Gothic style, and Westminster Abbey, where all the sovereigns since the 11th century have been crowned - is of great historic and symbolic significanceWestminster Palace is a monument to democracy, maybe architecturally less interesting (except of course for Big Ben) from the outside, but the inside is really fascinating and you can do a guided tour that lets you see the Houses of Parliament (certainly in summer, not sure about other times of year when parliament is in session). St.Margaret´s Church is a small gem that should not be missed, but of course most people head straight to Westminster Abbey, Britain´s greatest religous building and a historical monument par excellence. It is the site of the coronation of the kings and queens of England since William the Conqueror claimed his new country´s crown in 1066, and also the burial place for most of them. There are numerous monuments and plaques dedicated to famous historical personalities, from Shakespeare to Mary Queen of Scots. Huge crowds, but still doubtlessly worth the visit. By the way, not too far away (toward Victoria Station) is Westminster Cathedral - not to be confused with the Abbey -, which is Britain´s major Catholic church. An angel sculpture from London's Palace of Westminster will finally get a replacement head after it was damaged by World War II bombing. (Riding, Christine; Riding, Jacqueline, 2000, 34-67)

Following a two-year joint initiative between the Palace of Westminster and the City & Guilds of London Art School, the head is now being carved from Cadeby limestone by Kevin McKeon, a postgraduate student at the school. He was announced as the winning designer by the Right Honourable Baroness Hayman, Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, resulting from a competition set by the curator's office at the Palace of Westminster. This followed conservation and cleaning work on the angel's body by the school's student conservators. The angel was originally sited in the Victoria Tower—the square tower at the southern end of the Palace of Westminster—which was partially destroyed by Nazi bombing in 1941 during attacks that annihilated the House of Commons. The Thames Bank Workshop, under the supervision of John Thomas, was probably responsible for carving the angel in the 1840s during the rebuilding of the palace by architects Charles Barry and ...