User:The Duke of Waltham/Palace of Westminster workshop/Parliamentary Estate draft

The Parliamentary Estate is the complex of buildings in Westminster, central London, that house the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The Estate's centrepiece and oldest part is the 19th-century Palace of Westminster, designed by Sir Charles Barry and A. W. N. Pugin and constructed on the site of an older complex and former royal residence after its destruction by fire in 1834. It contains the debating chambers of the two Houses, the libraries, the offices of the main officers, the official residence of the Speaker of the Commons, a number of offices and committee rooms, and ceremonial rooms. The most famous feature of the Palace is the Clock Tower, also known as Big Ben.

The House of Commons also occupies a number of buildings to the north of the Palace.



Across the street from the Clock Tower, on the corner of Bridge Street and the Victoria Embankment, lies Portcullis House. Commissioned in 1992 and opened in 2001, this building provides office space for 210 Members of Parliament, several committee rooms and a range of services for MPs including a post office and a restaurant. The seven-storey building is organised around a central glazed courtyard, and its location on top of the Westminster tube station made it necessary to distribute the weight of the inner walls into just six columns. Its style is influenced by both the neighbouring Palace of Westminster and the Norman Shaw Buildings, and its characteristic chimneys, part of an energy-saving ventilation system, reference both the pinnacles of the former and the chimneys of the latter. An underground passage connects Portcullis House with the Palace of Westminster.



Further north are the Norman Shaw Buildings, North and South. Norman Shaw North was designed in 1887 by Richard Norman Shaw as New Scotland Yard, the new headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service. When it opened in 1890, however, it was found inadequate for the needs of the growing police force, so an extension was commissioned. Scotland House, completed in 1906, was designed by John Dixon Butler in a similar style to its northern neighbour; Shaw acted as a consultant. When the Metropolitan Police moved out in 1967 the future of the buildings was uncertain and various plans were considered, including the demolition of the buildings. Eventually, both were listed in 1970. The House of Commons occupied the north building and refurbished it in 1973–76, and continued with the south building in 1976–79; they were renamed after their architect (New Scotland Yard is the name of the current offices of the Metropolitan Police). The two buildings are connected by a bridge, and when Portcullis House was built another bridge was constructed between it and Norman Shaw South, creating a direct route between Norman Shaw North and the Palace of Westminster.