House of parliament





Palace of Westminster: Facts About the Houses of Parliament

The building was designed by architect Charles Barry and built in the 1840s, replacing an earlier building destroyed by fire.

Big Ben is the name of the huge bell in the Elizabeth Clock Tower.

No animals are allowed into the Palace of Westminster, other than seeing eye dogs.

The Hall of Westminster is the oldest surviving part of the original building and has the largest Medieval roof in England.

The building contains over 100 staircases and 3 miles of corridor.

Big Ben

The building is colour coded – gold in the parts used by the Monarch, red for the Lords and green for the Commons. Originally this hierarchy of colour – with green being the lowest grade – pretty much reflected the relative importance of each element of Parliament. Over the years the power of the Monarch and the Lords declined. Since 1689 the Commons has been the more powerful of the two chambers.