Westminster area (London part 8 of 9)

Behold, Big Ben! NOT! Big Ben is the bell that hangs out in that clock tower, not the tower/clock itself. I have about a million (ok, more like 20. But still a lot) pictures of the tower, so it was a challenge to pick just one. The tower anchors one end of the Palace of Westminster, which serves as the home of both houses of Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Once upon a time, there was another Palace of Westminster, but it burned down in the 1800s, and the current building was constructed.

I think it is quite pretty. You can visit Parliament and even observe politics happening in the two houses, but the building is only open when Parliament is in session. They are usually there rather late at least one day a week, which makes this a great place to visit after 5 pm when most things close down. Sadly, I was there after Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, resigned his Parliament, so everything was closed down until after elections. British politics are quite different from our own since it is a multi-party system.

To broil it down to the most basic level, basically elections are held for the seats in the House of Commons, while the members of the House of Lords are drawn from the nobility (either elected from the ranks of eligible hereditary lords by the members of the aristocracy who once held a seat in the house by privilege of their rank) and from the higher-ups of the Church of England, namely the archbishops and a number of high ranking bishops, and include a number of appointed members whose descendants do not get hereditary right to be considered for the House. Anyway, once elections for seats are held, whichever party holds the majority of seats is the party from which the Prime Minster is chosen by the Queen; usually she picks whoever happens to be the head of that particular party. The problem comes in when no one party holds a majority (i.e. like right now as election turmoil still rages). When this happens, two or more parties will try to put together a "coalition" government. They'll be buddy buddy and work together and then the Queen gets to pick who she thinks will be the most successful to form a successful government (usually the leader of the largest party in the coalition). As a result of the general election held just last week, the parties are trying to jockey into position and get a coalition government formed. Oh, and did I mention that there is no set time frame for elections to occur? Parliament can cast a vote of no confidence in the current government under the leadership of the Prime Minster and force an election. Or, the Prime Minster can resign his government as no longer functional and force elections. Anyway, the point of all of that was that it would probably be pretty cool to check out the Palace of Westminster, but try to time your trip for when Parliament is actually meeting!

And here's Churchill keeping an eye on things, just in case ;) 

Right across the street is Westminster Abbey. The abbey is considered a "royal peculiar." This means that it is a church outside of the diocese system and instead operates directly under the monarchy. There's only a few of these; by operating outside of the diocese, Westminster Abbey is not subject to the rule of the local bishop. This is the traditional site for various ceremonies involving the royal family, including coronations, weddings, and burials/funerals. In fact, all British monarchs have been crowned here since Harold Godwinson & William the Conqueror, both in 1066, although the building has certainly seen some changes over the years. Like everything else in London, it isn't cheap to visit, although at 12 pounds for a discounted student ticket, it is on the cheaper end. However, they throw in a free audio guide with admission, which is unusual, and a great perk.  But as with most cathedrals/churches/abbeys, no photography inside.

It is really neat inside. There are a number of monuments & tombs within the church, including King/St Edward the Confessor and a number of other kings/queens including Mary Queen of Scots and Queens Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton (Da Vinci Code fans may recall Langdon's visit to Westminster Abbey to visit Newton's tomb), Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Frederick Handel, Robert Browning, Laurence Olivier. Westminster also holds a tomb of the unknown soldier adorned with poppies.

Now, if you're a medieval dork like me, you would be wondering how on earth Westminster Abbey has survived in such great shape. If you recall any of my other entries featuring monasteries, you may recall that the pictures showed monasteries in much more, well, ruinous states. Between 1536 and 1541, Henry VIII "dissolved" all of the monasteries in England. This Dissolution of the Monasteries effectively outlawed the monasteries and allowed the king to take over all of their property and wealth. When this occurred, everything valuable was stripped from them, including the stained glass windows and stone that could be used for building projects. Add centuries of re-appropriating the stone and you wind up with some very ruined monasteries. So how did Westminster avoid this? Well, Henry VIII made it a cathedral. That's right, he wrote a charter and declared that Westminster was henceforth a cathedral and thus was spared in the Dissolution. This lasted for 10 years, when Mary Tudor re-established it as a Catholic Benedictine monastery. Then nine years later Elizabeth I did away with that. Then in 1579, Elizabeth turned it into a royal peculiar as the Collegiate Church of St Peter, which meant that there were no more monks, but the church maintained an attached group of canons under the leadership of a dean. Guess who the first dean and his canons were? Yep, the abbot & his brethren who were losing their monkhood (that's not really a word but I don't know what the correct term is!). And that's how it has continued to today. It has also been a notable seat of learning due to its attached school. A good chunk of the translation of the Bible known as the King James Bible was written here and the more recent New English Bible was also created here.

Here's a not-so-great shot of the Banqueting House as I zip by on the bus. The Banqueting House is pretty much all that remains of the Palace of Whitehall that once graced this street and lends its name to the road which runs past Westminster Palace and houses a number of government offices & buildings along it. The Palace of Whitehall was constructed for Henry VIII and destroyed in 1698 by a disastrous fire. At the time of its destruction, Whitehall was the largest European palace, bigger even than the Vatican or Versailles. And just down the road from the Banqueting House is a little side street. You may have heard of it. It's called Downing Street.

See that black building? That's the UK's version of the White House. Only they actually know the address. Try asking a generic American what's at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 10 Downing Street is the home of the Prime Minister. After the IRA tried to bomb it in 1991, the government installed these big gates and security officers to keep everyone well back from the street.

And now I'm just about wrapped up with London. I think I'll do maybe one more odds and ends post and then we'll be on to Istanbul. Are you excited yet? :)