"St Martin in the Fields (parish) St Martin in the Fields was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. It took its name from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields and was within the Liberty of Westminster. It included within its boundaries the former extra-parochial areas of Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace. It was an ancient parish. In 1542 it gained most of what became its final form ""lands between the church of St Clement Danes and the Palace of Westminster"" from the parish of Westminster St Margaret. It originally included four other areas, carved out as"
"and a further to the top of the crown finial at its summit. In 1897, the King's Tower was officially renamed as the ""Victoria Tower"" in tribute to Queen Victoria in her Diamond Jubilee year. The Parliamentary Archives underwent a complete reconstruction between 1948 and 1963 to provide 12 floors of air-conditioned document storage, and again between 2000 and 2004 to bring it up to contemporary archive storage standards. Victoria Tower The Victoria Tower is the square tower at the south-west end of the Palace of Westminster in London, facing south and west onto Black Rod's Garden and Old Palace"
"Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London and is usually extended to refer to both the clock and the clock tower. The official name of the tower in which Big Ben is located was originally the Clock Tower, but it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The tower was designed by Augustus Pugin in a neo-gothic style. When completed in 1859, its clock was the largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock"
"being replaced on the dials. Originally, the renovation was estimated to cost between £29 million and £45 million; however, in September 2017, the figure increased to £61 million. Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London and is usually extended to refer to both the clock and the clock tower. The official name of the tower in which Big Ben is located was originally the Clock Tower, but it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II."
"and important manuscripts such as the original Bill of Rights and the death warrant of King Charles I. At the top of the cast-iron pyramidal roof is a flagstaff, from which flies the Royal Standard (the monarch's personal flag) when the Sovereign is present in the Palace. On all other days the Union Flag flies from the mast. At the north end of the Palace rises the most famous of the towers, Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben. At , it is only slightly shorter than Victoria Tower but much slimmer. Originally known simply as the Clock Tower (the"
"Tower of London in popular culture The Tower of London has been represented in popular culture in many ways. As a result of 16th and 19th century writers, the Tower has a reputation as a grim fortress, a place of torture and execution. One of the earliest traditions associated with the Tower was that it was built by Julius Caesar; the story was a popular amongst writers and antiquaries. The earliest recorded attribution of the Tower to the Roman ruler dates to the mid-14th century in a poem by Sir Thomas Gray. The origin of the myth is uncertain, although"
"Tower 42 Tower 42 is a skyscraper in the City of London, England. It is the fourth-tallest in the City and tenth-tallest in Greater London. Its original name was the National Westminster Tower (commonly known as the NatWest Tower), having been built to house NatWest's international headquarters. Seen from above, the shape of the tower resembles that of the NatWest logo (three chevrons in a hexagonal arrangement). The tower, designed by Richard Seifert and engineered by Pell Frischmann, is located at 25 Old Broad Street. It was built by John Mowlem & Co between 1971 and 1980, first occupied in"
"octagonal tower. This had become disused by 1700, and it became known as ""Mockbeggar Hall"", a term often used for an ornate but derelict building. The term ""Mockbeggar Wharf"" is still used for the adjoining foreshore. The ""Mockbeggar Hall"" is also the name of a Wetherspoons pub in neighbouring Moreton. In 1821 ownership passed to the Cust family. After 1826 the building was used as a hotel for some years. The ceiling of the Star Chamber at the Palace of Westminster was brought to the castle in 1836 along with panelling and other furnishings after the old exchequer buildings were"
"both leading architects; works for the interior decoration continued intermittently well into the 20th century. Major conservation work has been carried out since then to reverse the effects of London's air pollution, and extensive repairs took place after the Second World War, including the reconstruction of the Commons Chamber following its bombing in 1941. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom; ""Westminster"" has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, and the Westminster system of government has taken its name after it. The Elizabeth Tower, in particular, which is often referred to by"
"The name Whitehall was used for several buildings in the Tudor period. It either referred to a building made of light stone, or as a general term for any festival building. This included the Royal Palace of Whitehall, which in turn gave its name to the street. The street is about long and runs through the City of Westminster. It is part of the A3212, a main road in Central London that leads towards Chelsea via the Houses of Parliament and Vauxhall Bridge. It runs south from Trafalgar Square, past numerous government buildings, including the old War Office building, Horse"
"Street names of Westminster This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Westminster. The Westminster area (as distinct from the Council area) has no formally defined boundaries - those utilised here are the generally accepted boundaries of: The Mall and Northumberland Avenue to the north, the river Thames and Victoria Embankment/Millbank to the east, Vauxhall Bridge Road to the south and Buckingham Gate, Buckingham Palace Road and Bressenden Place to the west. For convenience Constitution Hill and Spur Road in the Royal Parks, and the area around the Wellington Arch, are included here,"
"the Palace of Westminster after the fire of 16 October 1834, which had destroyed the building and almost all of the records of the House of Commons. The records of the House of Lords survived the conflagration because they were, at the time, stored in the Jewel Tower, which was at a distance from the main building and still stands across the road from the Victoria Tower. Charles Barry's design for the new Palace of Westminster featured a tower over the Sovereign's Entrance, 12 floors of which incorporated record storage. Augustus Pugin produced most of the architectural designs and elevations"
"Westminster Tower (now known as Tower 42) in London to serve as its international headquarters. At a height of 600 feet (183 m) it was the tallest building in the UK until the topping-out of Canary Wharf Tower 10 years later; its footprint loosely approximating the bank's logo when viewed from the air, although the architect claimed the similarity was coincidence. Also worthy of note is National Westminster House (since renamed as 103 Colmore Row) in Birmingham: the building was sold to British Land in 2007 and demolished in 2015. The bank's expansion strategy hit trouble with the stock market"
"ground floor level. The keeper would have worked from the first floor, and Edward's treasure itself was kept on the second floor, in locked chests. The Jewel Tower continued to be used by Edward's successors for storing treasure and personal possessions, until 1512, when a fire in Westminster Palace forced the royal court to relocate to Whitehall, along with the jewels and plate from the tower. The king, Henry VIII, did not return to Westminster and instead built a new palace at Whitehall, but he continued to use the tower, then called the ""Tholde Juelhous"" (""the old Jewel House"") for"
"the main characters, Martin, points ""at the splayed-out figure at Temple Bar; it looked as ridiculous as usual – something between a serpent and a fowl."" Its removal is also mentioned in ""The Warden"" by Anthony Trollope. Temple Bar, London Temple Bar was the principal ceremonial entrance to the City of London on its western side from the City of Westminster. It is situated on the historic royal ceremonial route from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster, the two chief residences of the medieval English monarchs, and from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral. The"
"it may be related to the fact that the Tower was built in the corner of London's Roman walls. Another possibility is that someone misread a passage from Gervase of Tilbury in which he says Caesar built a tower at Odnea in France. Gervase wrote Odnea as Dodres, which is close to the French for London, Londres. Today, the story survives in William Shakespeare's ""Richard II"" and ""Richard III"", and as late as the 18th century some still regarded the Tower as built by Caesar. Tower of London in popular culture The Tower of London has been represented in popular"
"for the project and also the interior design. The first stone of the Tower was laid by Queen Victoria on 22 December 1843, and construction was completed in 1860. The tower was originally named ""The King's Tower"" because the fire of 1834 which destroyed the old Palace of Westminster occurred during the reign of King William IV. The Victoria Tower incorporates a cast-iron framework which, rather than the visible stonework, provides the main strength supporting the structure. When the wrought-iron flagstaff was erected, the tower became the tallest square tower in the world, at to the base of the flagstaff,"
"Parliament by extension, is known as ""San Steffan"". On 2 June 2012, ""The Daily Telegraph"" reported that 331 Members of Parliament, including senior members of all three main parties, supported a proposal to change the name from ""Clock Tower"" to ""Elizabeth Tower"" in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in her diamond jubilee year. This was thought to be appropriate because the large west tower now known as Victoria Tower was renamed in tribute to Queen Victoria on her diamond jubilee. On 26 June 2012, the House of Commons confirmed that the name change could go ahead. The Prime Minister, David"
"Tower of London The Tower of London, officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078"
"of the present Palace of Westminster, the yard was an open public space used for a variety of purposes including speeches, tournaments, pilloryings, and executions. It has twice been the scene of terrorist attacks. New Palace Yard is situated in the north-west corner of the grounds of the Palace of Westminster. It is bordered to the north by Bridge Street, to the east by the Palace's North Front and Big Ben, to the south by Westminster Hall and to the west by Parliament Square. It is accessed from Parliament Square via the Carriage Gates. Underneath the yard is a five-level"
"he claims also gave his name to London. Ludgate appears in Walter de la Mare's poem ""Up and Down"", from ""Collected Poems 1901–1918"", Vol. II: Songs of Childhood, Peacock Pie, 1920. Ludgate Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Square. Despite the claim by the Norman-Welsh Geoffry of Monmouth in his ""Historia Regum Britanniae"" that Ludgate was so-called having been built by the ancient British king called Lud—a manifestation of the god Nodens—the name is believed by later writers to be derived from"
"Temple Bar, London Temple Bar was the principal ceremonial entrance to the City of London on its western side from the City of Westminster. It is situated on the historic royal ceremonial route from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster, the two chief residences of the medieval English monarchs, and from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral. The road east of Temple Bar and within the City is Fleet Street, the road to the west, in Westminster, is The Strand. At Temple Bar the Corporation of the City of London formerly erected a barrier to"
"and stood until 1707. A tower to the north side was built under Edward I and was demolished in 1715; it housed the bell known as Great Tom. Many of the buildings around New Palace Yard were swept away in the 1750s by the urban redevelopment that accompanied the construction of Westminster Bridge. Bridge Street was built to the north of the yard, Parliament Street to connect the Palace with Charing Cross, and Abingdon Street to connect it with Millbank. A row of buildings separated the yard from Bridge Street until they were demolished in 1866–7, opening up the yard"
"since 1912. Both the Wellington Arch and Marble Arch (originally sited in front of Buckingham Palace) were planned in 1825 by George IV to commemorate Britain's victories in the Napoleonic Wars. The Wellington Arch was also conceived as an outer gateway to Constitution Hill and therefore a grand entrance into central London from the west. The presence of a turnpike gate at this point had led, in the 18th century, to a strong perception that this was the beginning of London (reflected in the nickname for Apsley House as ""No 1, London"") and the arch was intended to reflect the"
"never called ""palaces""; although the formal name for the ""Houses of Parliament"" is the Palace of Westminster, this reflects Westminster's former role as a royal residence and centre of administration. In more recent years, the word has been used in a more informal sense for other large, impressive buildings, such as The Crystal Palace of 1851 (an immensely large, glazed hall erected for The Great Exhibition) and modern arenas-convention centers like Alexandra Palace. The largest in the world is the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania. Built during the socialist regime, no effort or expense was spared to raise"
"Ludgate Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Square. Despite the claim by the Norman-Welsh Geoffry of Monmouth in his ""Historia Regum Britanniae"" that Ludgate was so-called having been built by the ancient British king called Lud—a manifestation of the god Nodens—the name is believed by later writers to be derived from ""flood gate"" or ""Fleet gate"", from ""ludgeat"", meaning ""back gate"" or ""postern"", or from the Old English term """"hlid-geat"""" a common Old English compound meaning ""postern"" or ""swing gate"". The Romans"
"regulate trade into the City. The 19th century Royal Courts of Justice are located next to it on its north side, having been moved from Westminster Hall. To its south is the Temple Church and the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court. As the most important entrance to the City of London from Westminster, it was formerly long the custom for the monarch to halt at Temple Bar before entering the City of London, in order for the Lord Mayor to offer the Corporation's pearl-encrusted Sword of State as a token of loyalty. The term ""Temple Bar"" strictly"
"14 Prince's Gate, London 14 Prince's Gate is the building at the east end of a terrace overlooking Hyde Park in Kensington Road, Westminster, London. The whole terrace is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The terrace is called Prince's Gate because it stands opposite the Prince of Wales' Gate to Hyde Park, named after the Prince of Wales who later became Edward VII. In its earlier days its occupants included members of the Morgan family of American bankers. From the 1920s to the 1950s it was the residence of eight"
"but was closed to the public in June 2018, when it was replaced as a museum by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries, high up in the Abbey triforium. Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until"
"Thames was facilitated by the opening of Westminster Bridge in the 1740s. There are competing theories as to why the Russian word for a central railway station is (""vokzal""), which coincides with the canonical 19th-century transliteration of ""Vauxhall"". It has long been suggested that a Russian delegation visited the area to inspect the construction of the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) in 1840, and mistook the name of the station for the generic name of the building type. This was further embellished into a story that Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, visiting London in 1844, was taken to see"
"to flight paths for both London City and London Heathrow airports; the revised plan for a lower tower was accepted. The tower's topmost panoramic dome, known as the ""lens"", recalls the iconic glass dome that covered part of the ground floor of the Baltic Exchange and much of which is now displayed at the National Maritime Museum. ""The Gherkin"" nickname was applied to the current building at least as long ago as 1999, referring to that plan's highly unorthodox layout and appearance. On 23 August 2000, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott granted planning permission to construct a building much larger"
"government are situated, and hence metonymically to the central government itself. At its most expansive, the palace extended over much of the area bordered by Northumberland Avenue in the north; to Downing Street and nearly to Derby Gate in the south; and from roughly the elevations of the current buildings facing Horse Guards Road in the west, to the then banks of the River Thames in the east (the construction of Victoria Embankment has since reclaimed more land from the Thames)—a total of about . It was about from Westminster Abbey. By the 13th century the Palace of Westminster had"
"Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall (or Palace of White Hall) at Westminster, Middlesex, was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except for Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. It had at one time been the largest palace in Europe, with more than 1,500 rooms, overtaking the Vatican, before itself being overtaken by the expanding Palace of Versailles, which was to reach 2,400 rooms. The palace gives its name, Whitehall, to the street on which many of the current administrative buildings of the present-day British"