User:The Duke of Waltham/Palace of Westminster workshop/Main Sandbox B

= Victoria Tower =

The Victoria Tower is a square tower at the south-west corner of the Palace of Westminster in London. At 98.5 m, it was the tallest secular building in the world at the time of its completion in 1855, and the second-tallest building in London. It houses the Parliamentary Archives in archive conditions meeting the BS 5454 standard, on 12 floors. All 14 floors of the building were originally linked via a single wrought-iron Victorian staircase of 553 steps, of which five floors survive.

The main entrance at the base of the tower is the Sovereign's Entrance, through which the Monarch passes at the State Opening of Parliament. On top of the Victoria Tower is an iron flagstaff, from which the Union Flag is flown when Parliament is in session (unless the Sovereign is present in the Palace, when it is replaced by the Royal Standard).

Background and conception
When the Houses of Parliament were all but destroyed by fire on 16 October 1836 (see Burning of Parliament), a competition...

The King's Tower, as it was called at the time in honour of King William IV, was one of the main elements of Charles Barry's design for the New Palace of Westminster.

The name changed to Victoria Tower after the death of William and accession of his niece Victoria to the throne...

History
The Victoria Tower was purpose-built as a "fireproof repository for books and documents", as required by the competition to rebuild 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 Welby Pugin produced most of the architectural designs and elevations 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 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 in 1855, the tower became the tallest square tower in the world, at 98.5 m to the base of the flagstaff, and a further 22.3 m to the top of the crown finial at its summit.

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.

Exterior
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Royal Entrance
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Elevations
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Roof
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Flagstaff
At the top of the Victoria Tower stands a 22.3 m iron flagstaff, which culminates in a gold crown finial resting 120.8 m above street level. Originally, the only flag broken on the mast was the Royal Standard, the monarch's personal flag; this only occurred when the Sovereign visited the Palace for the annual State Opening of Parliament, leaving the flagstaff bare for the rest of the year. In 1893, Queen Victoria acceded to a request for the Union Flag to be flown from the Tower "when Parliament is sitting", resulting in a practice which has continued to the present day. Three different flag sizes are used, depending on the strength of the wind; the largest measures 11 by.

Nowadays, the flag is hoisted at 10 a.m. on the days when either House of Parliament is scheduled to sit, and lowered at sunset. The Union Flag is also flown on 16 designated flag days, irrespective of Parliamentary activity; these are mostly royal anniversaries, such as Coronation Day and the birthdays of certain members of the Royal Family, but also include Commonwealth Day, St George's Day, Europe Day and Remembrance Day. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, announced in late 2009 that this practice will change in the future, and that the flag will fly all year round from the Victoria Tower, subject to agreement with the House of Lords.

At State Openings of Parliament, the Union Flag is taken down and the Royal Standard is unfurled when the monarch steps into the Palace of Westminster; the reverse happens when the monarch leaves the Palace after the end of the ceremony. Another flag, the Stars and Stripes, has been hoisted on the Victoria Tower on one occasion: it flew along with the Union Flag on 20 April 1917 in celebration of the entry of the United States into the First World War.

Interior
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