Marketing for Romance Writers Magazine April, 2020 Volume # 3, Issue # 4 | Page 18

JANUARY, 2020
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER PALACE
By: Liese Sherwood-Fabré
Perhaps one of the
most recognizable
structures in London
is the building housing
Parliament—
Westminster Palace—
and its clock—Big
Ben. The palace itself
spans more than 900
years. A Saxon church dedicated to St.
Peter gave the area the name “West Min-
ster” for “West Monastery.” (A church
name for St. Paul located in east London
became East Minster). When the church
became a Benedictine Abbey, royal inter-
est in the area grew and Danish King
Cnut (Canute) initiated construction of a
palace on the site, and it continued as the
primary royal residence until a fire de-
stroyed a large portion of it in 1512. (1)
Following the fire, the palace became
the permanent home for Parliament,
which up until then had followed the
King and met wherever he was residing
when not in Westminster. The two
houses of Parliament, the House of
Lords and the House of Commons, were
assigned different chambers in the palace
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for their sessions. The House of Lords
(representatives from the nobility and the
senior clergy) occupied the Queen‟s
Chamber until 1801 when it moved to
the Lesser Hall to accommodate the
growing number of representatives. The
Hall had been the Court of Requests
where the king had received petitions
from his subjects. The Chapel of St.
Stephen‟s became the chamber for
House of Commons (composed of
knights, burgesses, and others outside the
nobility). (2)
The architecture of the Commons
Chamber is credited in part with creating
still-existing two-party system
(government vs. opposition). When
members of parliament (MPs) moved in,
they found the chapel‟s choir stalls on
either side and a screen at one end. The
two sides took their seats across the
chapel‟s aisle from each other and used
the screen for voting. In addition, an altar
with crucifix had remained, and the MPs
bowed in that direction when they en-
tered or exited, a practice they continue
to the present day. (3)
Bombing during World War II de-
stroyed the House of Commons, but it
reopened in 1950. Building renovations
and repairs occurred piecemeal in the
ensuing years until 2012 when Parliament
commissioned a study to determine the
need for a comprehensive renovation.
The study‟s final report identified major
issues that needed to be addressed for
the building to remain operational, and
the government is developing a final plan
to fund the project with completion
scheduled for 2020/2021. (4) Repairs on
Big Ben and the Elizabeth Tower that
houses the famous clock alone are esti-
mated at $62 million. (5)
While the price tag might seem high,
the loss of the iconic symbols of British
democracy are well worth the costs.
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