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Houses of Parliament
Houses of Parliament,also New Palace
of
Westminster, seat of the British legislature a great
mass of eastbuildings on the bank of
the Thames
River in London. It was built (1840-60) after plans by
Sir Charles Barry, on the site of the
medieval royal
residence, the Palace
of Westminster, which was
largely destroyed by fire in 1834.
The buildings cover an area of more than 3
hectares (8 acres) and contain 1100
apartments,
100 staircases, and 11 courts. The
exterior, in rich
late Gothic style, is impressive with its
three
massive towers: Victoria
Tower (102 m/336 ft),
Middle Tower (91 m/300 ft), and Saint Stephen's, or
the Clock Tower (98 m/320 ft). The latter
contains a
clock with four dials, each 7 m (23 ft) in
diameter,
and a great bell, Big Ben, weighing 13.5
tons.
Among the houses are the sumptuous House
of
Peers;
House of Commons; Saint Stephen's Hall on
the
site of Saint Stephen's Chapel; the
residence of
the Speaker; the libraries, committee
rooms, and
lobbies connected with the House of
Commons
and the House of Peers; and offices.
Westminster
Hall (begun 1097) is all that remains of
the original
palace.
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In World War II the buildings were
seriously damaged during air raids.
In 1974 a bomb planted by Irish
nationalists slightly damaged
Westminster Hall.
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Big Ben
Big Ben is one of the most famous buildings in
London. When you tell people you have been in
London one of the first remarks you get is:
"Oh, did you see Big Ben?'.
A lot of people think that the clock tower
is Big
Ben, however, it is not the tower but the
bell in
the clock that is called Big Ben. The
clock tower
itself is called the Great Clock of
Westminster.
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In 1844 Parliament decided that
the
new buildings of the Houses of
Parliament should include a clock
tower. The specifications for the
clock
were extremely high for that time.
The first strike of the bell should
be
correct to one second to the hour
and
it took until 1851 to develop a
mechanism that was that accurate.
The bell was made according to
certain requirements regarding
weight, shape and metal.
However, it cracked and was beyond
repair. Because of this, a new bell
had to be made.This time the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry undertook
the castings. A couple of months
after the clock went into service
the
bell cracked again. This apparently
had to do with the hammer and
according to experts, was to heavy.
Big Ben was out of order for 3
years,
in which the hammer was replaced
with a lighter one and the bell was
turned a bit.
An interesting point of fact, is that
Parliament discussed an appropriate
name for the clock tower for quite a
while. Sir Benjamin Hall, a large
and
portely man who was also known as
Big Ben, gave a long speech about
the clock. At the end of his speech
somebody in Parliament said: 'Why
not call him Big Ben and be done with
it?'.
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