The Lemon Fool

I saw mention of a tour of the Mansion House, and that reminded me of a tour of Parliament that we undertook a few years ago. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit and leave you to read the attached link to make your own visiting arrangements. Just email your Member of Parliament, and wait for a reply!

https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visi ... ent/tours/

We did this a few months ago and recommend it. It's weird having seen TV coverage from the HoC for yeeears and then walk through it, it's waaay smaller than it appears, quite the bear-pit.
Also in the Palace of Westminster St. Stephen's Hall is by comparison quite vast in scale for it's age and I'll vouch many won't even know of it's existance! QED

DiamondEcho wrote:We did this a few months ago and recommend it. It's weird having seen TV coverage from the HoC for yeeears and then walk through it, it's waaay smaller than it appears, quite the bear-pit.
Also in the Palace of Westminster St. Stephen's Hall is by comparison quite vast in scale for it's age and I'll vouch many won't even know of it's existance! QED

Umm ... St Stephen's Hall is the hall between St Stephen's entrance and the central lobby, built on the foundations of St Stephen's chapel, which was destroyed in the 1834 fire, and isn't particularly vast.

Methinks you mean Westminster Hall, the original Norman bit (1097), although the fantastic hammer beam roof dates from 1393 ... and the top of the steps (St Stephen's Porch) looking back is definitely the best way to look at it!.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Westminster_Hall_in_the_Palace_of_Westminster.jpg

mc2fool wrote:looking back is definitely the best way to look at it!.

I was born under a wandrin' star
Wheels are made for rollin'
Mules are made to pack
I've never seen a sight
That didn't look better looking back

NomoneyNohoney wrote:I saw mention of a tour of the Mansion House, and that reminded me of a tour of Parliament that we undertook a few years ago. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit and leave you to read the attached link to make your own visiting arrangements. Just email your Member of Parliament, and wait for a reply!

https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visi ... ent/tours/

Not like in the old days- I have a letter from William Ewart Gladstone's grandson, on H of C paper, inviting my great uncle to tea in the House of Commons.(I found it inside Morley's three volume " Life of Gladstone" which I inherited but have never quite got around to reading)

Many years ago I worked in and around the place. My lasting memory was the difficulty in finding a toilet. In my day, those of us working on the Committee corridors had to walk what seemed like half a mile to find a toilet as, in those days, Members and Strangers (those who were not MPs) had to do their ablutions in separate places. Hopefully that level of discrimination doesn't exist today.

mc2fool wrote:Methinks you mean Westminster Hall, the original Norman bit (1097), although the fantastic hammer beam roof dates from 1393 ... and the top of the steps (St Stephen's Porch) looking back is definitely the best way to look at it!.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Westminster_Hall_in_the_Palace_of_Westminster.jpg

Yep, that's the one, my error. The view from the far end looking back towards the entrance is quite amazing and especially considering is extraordinary age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of ... anquet.jpg