The Houses of Parliament

Last week Saffiah sneaked out of the Anzu studio to visit the Houses of Parliament in London for a tour.  These are some of her highlights of the tour.

It was so exciting to see the various chambers and rooms in the Houses of Parliament and to see what goes on.  St. Stephen’s hall was the original House of Commons, before it was destroyed in a fire.  It has now been renovated and decorated with statues of famous people from parliament and mosaic pieces but you can still see the brass plates on the floor marking where the speaker’s chair would have been.

One of the highlights was of course seeing the House of Commons and House of Lords.

Whilst in the House of Commons I was quite surprised how small it looks compared to how it looks on TV, and it can only sit approximately 430 MPs out of the 650 current MPs. If you look close enough during the tour you can even see slight damage caused on the table where Winston Churchill would sit and thump his hand on the wood.

The House of Lords was elaborate and luxurious in contrast to the House of Commons with deep red leather, fresco paintings, stained glass windows and a gold throne where the Queen sits to give her speech.

My favourite part of the Tour was the Princes Chamber, a room where Lords meet to have discussions.   I loved the paintings of famous figures from the Tudor Dynasty lining the gilded walls (although they are actually replicas of Holbein’s paintings).  Seeing all the paintings lined up really made me realise sheer enormity of British history.

Overall it was fascinating to see hundreds of years of history, where Kings and Queens have walked, given speeches and even been sentenced to death.  To find out more about the tour of the Houses of Parliament click here You can also take online virtual tours here