LONDON CALLING: The Palace of Westminster

The view emerging from the London Underground
Westminster Station, under Portcullis House.

Bridge Street:
Portcullis House (2001 - Parliamentary Estate and Tube station) on the left;
on the right: The Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament)
with Elizabeth Tower (known as Big Ben, one of the five bells it houses).

Parliament Square:
The Shard (2 miles away and the tallest building in the UK) can be seen here
between Portcullis House and Big Ben.

Far right in the pic: the octagonal Central Tower (91 metres) is in fact a ventilation shaft.
In front of it: the largest clear-span medieval roof in England, Westminster Hall (1097) - the oldest part of the Palace, it survived two fires (in the 16th & 19th centuries) and World War II bombing (roof is 21 metres x 73 metres approx. made of oak,
at least 600 oak trees were used, some 900 years ago).
The 'new' palace is mostly 19th century, gothic in style and took 30 years to build. The architect was Charles Barry; his Commons Chamber could not be saved from the fire that followed one of the several bombings of the Palace during WWII.

New Palace Yard dates from the original medieval Palace of Westminster (1097), it is now a garden
above an underground car park, but is not opened to the public.

New Palace Yard and Westminster Hall
(on the right: less ornate than the rest of the palace, with battlements on its turrets.)

Along Westminster Hall is Cromwell Green (lower than Abingdon Street)
and its statue of Oliver Cromwell.

The Union Jack flies over Victoria Tower (98.5 metres) which is the site of the Sovereign's Entrance and the Parliamentary Archives. Past the railing, on Old Palace Yard, stands the 19th century statue of Richard I Coeur de Lion - King Richard The Lionheart, riding his horse and holding a sword (which got bent by a bomb during the WWII Blitz, the statue has since been repaired).
Guy Fawkes and his confederates were hanged in that yard and Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded there too (the latter was buried at St Margaret's Church, a few yards away, on Parliament Square).

Oliver Cromwell - Lord Protector
of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland (1653-1658).
Half a century after the erection of Cromwell’s statue, a bust of Charles I was donated and placed outside the east wall of St Margaret’s Church (in the 1950s), thus facing Cromwell who had signed the death warrant that lead to the King being beheaded in 1649.

An Airbus A380 flying over with its 4 engines.

New Palace Yard

Obligatory discussion about the trees ensued...

There are 6 Indian Bean Trees on this site and they are believed to be at least 150 years old.
Originally from North America, Catalpas are recognisable by their long bean-like pods and their contorted trunks.

The 1859 Clock Tower was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012
to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.
It is 96 metres high, it leans and oscillates slightly.
The top part is covered in cast iron plates.

The clock is the second largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and
it is due to be silent and covered for a three-year-long repair work.
The dials are 7 metres in diameter and behind opal glass.
The hour hands weigh 300 kg each.
The bell called Big Ben is over 2 metres in height, its hammer weighs 200 kg.