The New Palace
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Previous page: The Old PalaceTHE NEW PALACE
The New Palace of Westminster is both the largest and, externally and internally, the most sumptuously decorated building that has been erected in England since the Reformation.
It was designed by Sir Charles Barry, who, strangely enough, was born in a house in Bridge Street that was demolished to make way for the new palace.
The construction of so magnificent a building exercised a profound influence on English arts and crafts, special schools of design being formed to deal with the various features of decoration-mural painting, mosaics, stone and wood carving, tile work, stained glass, metalwork, etc.
The palace is in the Early Tudor style of architecture. It covers an area of eight acres, and the river frontage (which has a terrace 700 feet long) is 940 feet in length; the width, at the South Front (abutting, on the Victoria Tower Garden) is 284 feet. There are 500 apartments large and small, and eleven internal courts or quadrangles.
The Victoria Tower, at the south-west angle, is 75 feet square and 336 feet high at the top of the pinnacles. The Union Jack is flown on this tower when Parliament is sitting.
The Central Tower, which serves as a great ventilating shaft, is 300 feet in height. The Clock Tower (it stands on the site of a clock and bell tower erected by Edward I) is 356 feet in height at the tip of the sceptre.
The dials of the clock are 22.5 feet in diameter, with figures a foot long; whilst the minute hands are 14 feet long, and the hour hands 9 feet.
The great bell called Big Ben (after Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works of the period), weighs 13.5 tons. A light is shown at the summit of this tower at night when Parliament is sitting.
The statues of sovereigns of the various dynasties and the heraldic carving on the exterior of the palace were executed by J. Thomas.
Unfortunately, the Yorkshire stone of the exterior is not suited to the London atmosphere, and a costly repairs have periodically been needed. Some of the pinnacles, etc., are in a state of decay.
The principal entrances are at the Victoria Tower (for the sovereign), St. Stephen's Porch (adjoining Westminster Hall), a sort of main entrance and used also by visitors who wish to attend the debates of the Commons; and the Peers' Entrance, in Old Palace Yard (the yard is so called because it was originally the courtyard of the Confessor's palace).
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