Houses of Parliament London, England
Listed Building Data
The Houses of Parliament has been designated a Grade I listed building in England with the following information, which has been imported from the National Heritage List for England. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- List Entry ID
- 1226284
- Listing Type
- listed building
- Grade
- I
- Date Listed
- 5 February 1970
- Name
- HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER
- Location
- HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, PARLIAMENT SQUARE SW1THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER, PARLIAMENT SQUARE SW1
- District
- City of Westminster
- County
- Greater London Authority
- Grid Reference
- TQ 30267 79504
- Easting
- 530267.0880
- Northing
- 179504.4560
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
TQ 3079 NW and SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER PARLIAMENT SQUARE, SW1 92/53; 101/7; (east side) Houses of Parliament, 5.2.70
The Palace of Westminster
G.V. I
Houses of Parliament with the surviving parts of the Palace of Westminster.
Westminster Hall 1097-99, remodelled 1394-1401 by Henry Yevele with Hugh Herland, carpenter; St Stephen's Chapel "crypt", probably c.1292-97 and c.1320; St Stephen's Cloister and chantrey chapel 1526-29 (considerably restored after World War II bomb damage; Houses of Parliament (the New Palace of Westminster). 1835-60 by Sir Charles Barry with detailing, interior decoration and furnishings by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin; offices against side of Westminster Hall, 1888 by J L Pearson; House of Commons and Lobby rebuilt after World War II bombing.
Stone with slate roofs and galvanised cast iron plate roofs to Barry's work which also has an internal fireproof construction of iron joists and brick jack-arches. Cruciform, axial spine plan and massing by Barry combining symmetry on the river front terrace with the asymmetry of the major vertical accents: Victoria Tower, Big Ben and the central fleche and turrets above the roof line.
Pugin's 5 particular contribution the perpendicular Gothic detailing of rhythmic buttresses and bay windows, the close panelling with open and blind tracery and the wealth of sculpture, carved crockets, pinnacles and finials. Great vaulted Royal Entrance at foot of Victoria Tower; Lords entrance with buttressed, pinnacled porch in centre of Old Palace Yard range; St Stephen's Porch gatehouse across south end of Westminster Hall (giving access to cross-axis of plan); north entrance to Westminster Hall with great window above and crocketed finialed gable flanked by square battlemented towers (restored 1820); 3 gateways in E M Barry's cloister-arcade to east range of New Palace Yard terminating in virtually free-standing clock tower of Big Ben.
Perpendicular fenestration with shallow oriels. The riverside terrace has cast iron ornamental lamps on the buttress-piers of the Embankment wall.
Interiors:
Westminster Hall has vast hammerbeam roof of exceptionally early date and scale and outstanding late C14 figure sculpture flanking dais arch; St Stephen's Chapel "crypt", though much restored, retains perhaps the earliest surviving lierne vault; Pugin's interiors are the best preserved and most complete example of the quality and ideals of his secular decoration including all details and furnishings and are combined with a complete programme of mid C19 and early C20 wall paintings. (Loose items of furniture not covered by listing.)
The Houses of Parliament; M H Port [R C R M] History of the King's Works Survev of London: Vol X
Listing NGR: TQ3026379543
