BRITAIN (^21)
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
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ROGER HARRIS/HOUSE OF LORDS
at Churchill’s suggestion, was reconstructed from bomb-
scarred stone after the original was damaged in the Blitz,
a symbol of the country’s fortitude during the war.
To underline the point, on one side stands the imposing
gure of the wartime PM, anked on the other by his First
World War predecessor, David Lloyd George, who stands
on an extra plinth, to redress how diminutive his statue
appeared in comparison to Churchill. Look closely and you
will notice that one foot of either statue is slightly worn, the
relic of countless MPs touching them on the way in for luck.
A gaze around the room reveals more full-length gures
of ex-PMs, from Clement Attlee, who presided over the
creation of the NHS, to Margaret Thatcher. Famously,
at its unveiling, she was nonplussed at the choice of bronze
rather than iron, which would have be tted her famous
sobriquet, the ‘Iron Lady’.
The arrangement of the Commons dictates that opposing
politicians sit facing the opposing side, a tradition that can
be attributed to Churchill. After it was hit in the Blitz, there
was some discussion of a circular redesign, but the wartime
PM discouraged it, preferring the more confrontational
style of politics, in the belief that it encourages debate.
Indeed, rough and tumble appears bound up with being
an MP; only the front benches have reserved seats, the
others jostling for position on busy days, since the house
cannot accommodate the full complement of members.
For any visitor entering the Commons, the gaze naturally
falls on the spot where the PM sits: the precise seat from
where so much national history has been made. The
observant will note the worn edges of the despatch box,
where impassioned, or perhaps nervous, Prime Ministers
have steadied themselves during rigorous debate; Boris
Johnson, who became Britain’s Prime Minister in July, is
the latest to join their ranks.
If the House of Commons is often a highly charged
place, then the Aye and No lobbies that ank it are perhaps
even more so. For it is to either room that MPs must
quickly ock when the Speaker is not satis ed with the a
clear ‘aye’ or ‘no’ vote in the chamber, shouting ‘Division!’
to signify that members have eight minutes to cast their
votes, after which the doors are rmly closed.
It is Central Lobby, however, that remains the core of
Parliament, as the meeting place of the upper and lower
houses. It is where camera crews question MPs, and where
four large mosaic panels, depicting the patron saint of
each of the countries of the UK, sit over the four exits.
It is where the Suffragettes chained themselves to metal
grilles, and most crucially it is the place that members
of the public can make contact with an MP. For this
extraordinary repository of history remains, after all,
at the service of every citizen of the United Kingdom.
BOOK AHEAD
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT TOURS
Tours (with a tour guide £26.50, with a multimedia guide
£19.50) run every Saturday, and most weekdays in parliamentary
recesses, including Christmas, Easter and summer, and can be
paired with afternoon tea in one of the House of Commons’
riverside rooms (£30). Book through http://www.parliament.uk/visit
Formoreon
thehistoryofthe
HousesofParliament,
seewww.britain-
magazine.com
The Queen at the State
Opening of Parliament
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