A View of the Palace of Westminster from all sides. (2.5 Km)
- philip carey
- Aug 16, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 16, 2024
Start at Westminster Station
Finish at Westminster Station
THE EXPERIENCE
Discover its history, symbols of power, and views through a circular stride along both sides of the river. Today, the Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, but it used to be a royal palace up until the 1500s. It is commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative chambers that occupy the building.
Great for history, iconic sights, fantastic river views, museums, places of worship, and government buildings. Not good for food and drinking places
MUST SEE PLACES
Must see List
1. The View from Westminster Bridge
2. Big Ben & Elizabeth Tower
3. Westminster Hall
4. View of the Houses of Parliament
5. Westminster Abbey
6. Victoria Tower Gardens
7. St John’s Smith Square
8. Views from Lambeth Bridge
9. Lambeth Palace
10. Archbishop’s Park
11. Views From Albert Embankment
12. Views of St Thomas’s Hospitals
13. Old County Hall
14. Views from Parliament Square
PLACES TO EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY
Eating and Drinking Link
1. Inside Old County Hall
2. Behind Old County Hall
3. Horseferry Road
The major attractions are to the south of Westminster Bridge and include the London Eye, the London Dungeons, the Shrek Adventures, SeaWorld, and the Florence Nightingale Museum
It is possible to visit the Houses of Parliament visit https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/
Links to the Sightseeing Eat Drink, and Be Merry Routes
This route hardly contains any places to eat and drink however, there are places on these nearby routes.
Waterloo and the South Bank – which covers the main attractions on the south side of the river between Westminster Bridge and Waterloo Station.
Around the Centre of London – which covers the attractions and places to eat and drink around Charing Cross
https://www.photoruns.com/post/centre-of-london-sightseeing-eat-drink-and-be-merry-photorun
Westminster St James to Victoria – which covers the main iconic sightseeing areas to the north side of the Thames and the best places to eat and drink going west from Westminster Abbey towards Victoria Station
BEST TIME
Morning - The best time to do this route is on weekends in the early morning when it is quiet and free from crowds and heavy traffic.
Day - Westminster Bridge and around Parliament Square are busy most of the day. Quieter elsewhere
Evenings - Generally quiet.
ROUTE OVERVIEW
This 2 Km route takes you on a 360 tour of the historic Houses of Parliament, Albert embankment and Lambeth Palace. It starts and ends at Westminster Station and takes you along the side of the Houses of Parliament, into Victoria Tower Gardens, and then over Lambeth Bridge to Lambeth Palace. The route then follows the Albert Embankment, with its iconic view of the Houses of Parliament, to St Thomas’s Hospital by Westminster Bridge. It then heads towards Big Ben before finishing at Westminster Station by Parliament Square.
Route at a Glance Video (3:00)
These links open in a new tab
.
DESCRIPTIVE PHOTO GALLERY
This gallery provides a descriptive and visual reference to many sights along this route. Use the Google Map above to find their location. Double-click to see its full size.
INTERESTING FACTS
Lambeth Palace
The palace is the official home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England. The line of Archbishops of Canterbury goes back more than 1,400 years.
The only person ever buried in the palace, Archbishop Parker, is buried under the chapel floor.
Morton’s Tower, a red brick gatehouse, is the entrance to the palace. For centuries, archbishops would hand out bread and soup to the poor from the tower.
One of the most unusual items displayed at Lambeth Palace is the shell of a tortoise, bought by Archbishop Laud in 1633. The tortoise lived to be 120.
The library at Lambeth Palace was founded in 1610 and contains over 200,000 books, including about 600 Medieval manuscripts.
Next to Lambeth Palace is the parish church of St. Mary, dating from 1850- now the Garden Museum.
Admiral William Bligh, of Mutiny on the Bounty fame is buried in the churchyard.
Albert Embankment
Albert Embankment was created by the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette in 1869. Albert Embankment included land reclaimed from the river and various small timber and boat-building yards
St Thomas's Hospital
The hospital was originally run by a mixed order of Augustinian monks and nuns and was dedicated to St Thomas Becket. It provided shelter and treatment for the poor, sick, and homeless.
The new buildings on the present site in Lambeth near Lambeth Palace were completed in 1871.
St Thomas’s Hospital was one of the first new hospitals to adopt the "pavilion principle" – popularised by Florence Nightingale in her Notes on Nursing – by having seven separate ward buildings.
The hospital site was severely damaged during World War II, destroying three ward blocks. The construction of the thirteen-storey block was completed by John Laing & Sons in 1975
As the Palace of Westminster is still technically a Royal Palace, a convention has been adopted that any commoner who dies within the Palace is officially recorded as having died at St Thomas' Hospital.
Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge is painted green to match the colour of the House of Commons seats, and Lambeth Bridge is painted red to reflect the seats in the House of Lords.
Westminster Bridge is used in Bond films (Spectre, Die Another Day), 28 Days Layer, and several Doctor Who episodes, including The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964.
The Houses of Parliament
Big Ben Tower slowed by 5 minutes in 1949 when a flock of starlings landed on the minute hand.
The Houses of Parliament have over two miles of passages, including a royal route from the Sovereign's entrance beneath the Victoria Tower to the Lords.
Parliament Square was made into Britain’s first roundabout in 1926 - although it is a square. By then, it had already existed for about 80 years.
The Houses of Parliament are officially known as the Palace of Westminster, the largest palace in the country.
The Houses of Parliament has eight bars and six restaurants — all subsidized and not open to the public. It also has 1,000 rooms, 100 staircases, 11 courtyards, a hair salon, and a rifle-shooting range.
Big Ben is the bell, not the clock tower.
The world's first traffic light was erected outside the Houses of Parliament in 1868. The following year, it blew up, injuring the policeman who was operating it.
When the Palace of Westminster was first built, it was situated by the river so a mob could not surround it.
VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE AREA
Click on the picture below to go on a virtual tour of the sightseeing area.
Use the red route to explore this location by looking around in 360, taking in the sights and sounds, listening to an audio recording about the location and going on a virtual tour.
HISTORY & GUIDES VIDEO LIBRARY
These short videos give you a quick guided tour of some of the sites on this route.
Please note - These date from before 2018 and have been done in a variety of styles to determine which one works best. They all provide very useful information and we would welcome feedback to help create the new version
Part 1 - East Side - Parliament Square to Victoria Tower Gardens (5:30)
Part 2 - West Side - Lambeth Bridge, Albert Embankment and Westminster Bridge (5:49)
This 7:28 minute video provides you with a history of the area.
This 6:38 minute history video briefly introduces how the Central London sightseeing area expanded during the Tudors (1560) and the Victorians (1860).
Commentaires