The collegiate church of st.peter’s at westminster. Originally, the church of  ST.PETER’S ABBEY AT westminster 

There are 30 kings and queens buried in the Abbey, the first of whom was Edward the Confessor whose magnificent shrine stands at the centre of the church.

Until George II of England in 1760, most Kings and Queens of Englans were buried at this iconic church. Henry III, who built the church as we know today, is also buried here near Edward the Confessor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

CHAUCER died on 25th October 1400 and probably because he died in his house so near to the Abbey and was still in royal favour, he was buried at the entrance to the chapel of St Benedict, in the south transept of the Abbey.

Thousands of people are buried at Westminster Abbey and many others are memorialized. In addition to members of the royal family, famous people buried in the Abbey include Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, and Stephen Hawking.The practice of burying national figures in the abbey began under Oliver Cromwell with the burial of Admiral Robert Blake, in 1657. The practice spread to include generals, admirals, politicians, doctors and scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, buried on 4 April 1727 and Charles Darwin, buried on 19 April 1882.

General Staats Long Morris is probably the only American buried in Westminster Abbey. His grave is in the north aisle of the nave. Only the marker for his wife Jane is now visible and there is no monument to him.

In the centre aisle of the nave, near the west door, is a stone commemorating the temporary burial of George Peabody, American merchant and philanthropist.

On 26th November 1810 Marie Josephine Louise de Savoy, Queen of France and Navarre was buried in a vault with Antoine Philippe, Duc d'Orleans in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey. But the burial was only temporary and the body was delivered to Mr Martin, undertaker, on 5th March 1811 for removal to Sardinia and she lies in Cagliari cathedral.

GEORGE FREDERIK HANDEL 

KING GEORGE I

MUZIO CLEMENTI called the father of the PIANOFORTE. His fame as a musician and composer was acknowledged throughout Europe, and procured him the honour of a public interment in the CLOISTER. He had died ad EVESHAM, 

Charles de St.Denis, Sieur (or Lord) of St Evremond, soldier and writer, was buried in the centre part of Poets' Corner.
he left France and came to London, where he became the most celebrated Frenchman in England. He introduced London Society to the art of drinking champagne and Charles II was very impressed with the still version of the wine. The King appointed him governor of the duck islands in St James' Park.

Benjamin de Rohan (called in England the Duke of Soubise or Sabees), French Huguenot leader, was buried in Westminster Abbey on 25th November 1642. The location of the burial is unknown.

He served as a soldier in the Low Countries and commanded during the siege of La Rochelle (a war between Louis XIII's Catholic forces and the Protestant Huguenots). After this he fled to England.

A possible relative, Lady Mary Appollonia Scholastica de Rohan Chabot, eldest daughter of William, Earl of Stafford and widow of the Count de Rohan Chabot, was buried in St Edmund's chapel in the Abbey on 23rd May 1769

French noblewoman Aveline de Forz had a close connection to the Abbey. She was the first royal bride to be married here after Henry III .

In the north transept of Westminster Abbey are the graves of Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham, his niece Charlotte de Bourbon and his nephew Armand de Bourbon.

Upon Byron's death, Westminster Abbey refused to give his body a proper burial despite being widely admired for his poetry. This was mainly due to the controversial life Byron led and the sort of affairs he carried out in his youth.

King Harold I was originally buried in the Abbey, but his body was exhumed and thrown into a fen in June 1040. The body was later rescued and re-buried in the church of St Clement Danes in Westminster.

A number of Cromwellians were also buried in the Abbey but later removed, in 1661, on the orders of King Charles II, and buried in a pit in St Margaret's churchyard, adjoining the Abbey. A modern plaque on the exterior wall of the church records the names of those who were disinterred:

• Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
• Admiral Robert Blake
• John Pym

The burial of an unidentified British soldier killed during the First World War is the first example of a tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He represents the thousands of individuals who died during the war. Six bodies were exhumed from various battlefields and were placed in unmarked coffins, before one was selected for burial in Westminster Abbey. Although there are many graves on the floors of the church, this is the only one you're not allowed to walk on.

BEN JONSON

EARL OF OXFORD

on the façade above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey (from left to right): Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Masemola, Janani Luwum, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther John, Lucian Tapiedi and Wang Zhiming. 

A SANCTUARY was a piece of land, normally part of monasteries, which offered protection against detention, for those fleeing authority. Here, it was abolished in the 17th c.. The GATEHOUSE PRISON was built in its site. Courtier, adventurer, and seafarer WALTER RALEIGH served some time in it, before his execution in OLD PALACE YARD. Poet RICHARD LOVELACE wrote here some famous lines

The Westminster Scholars War Memorial, also known as the Crimea and Indian Mutiny Memorial, is an 1861 memorial in London. It commemorates 19 former pupils of Westminster School who died in two wars: ten in the Crimean War of 1854–56, and nine in the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58. It was designed in High Victorian Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott, who was Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey from 1849 to 1878.

The Church Commissioners redeveloped the area immediately outside the Abbey’s West Door. Gilbert Scott, then Surveyor of the Fabric of the Abbey, was commissioned to design a block of eight houses. Gilbert Scott’s intention was that these houses should not appear as one block and so he incorporated into his design subtle differences between each house. If the houses had not been adjacent to the Abbey, he would no doubt have been freer with his design. “A picturesque pile of houses” was how they were described in the Illustrated London News of 1854. When they were built the entire terrace of eight houses cost some £20,000. The design, based on features of St John’s College, Cambridge, is very much in keeping with Scott’s gothic style as illustrated in the former Midland Grand Hotel (now the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel) adjacent to St Pancras station and the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. Scott’s grandson followed in his grandfather’s footsteps becoming a famous architect, responsible for designs such as Battersea Power Station and the once ubiquitous red telephone boxes. Although originally built as houses The Sanctuary almost immediately became used as offices. While the censuses show that people did live there, domestic staff, housekeepers etc tended to the permanent residents.

Hitler’s man?

On May 13, 1935, Lawrence was out riding his motorcycle near Clouds Hill, his cottage close to Wareham. According to the official version of the story, he came to a dip in the road. As he rode up the rise, he found himself about to hit two boys on bicycles. Swerving, he lost control and was flipped over the handlebars of his motorcycle, sustaining a mortal head wound, but not without clipping one of the boys. Lawrence died six days later: May 19, 1935. An inquest was held at Bovington Camp, and Lawrence was buried in a local graveyard.

Sounds simple enough, right?.  Well, keep reading

Front elevation of 8 Barton Street, Westminster, along with parts of number 9 next door and 19 Cowley Street. Number 8 is a four-storey terraced house built in 1909 by the architect Horace Field to replace the early eighteenth-century house that had previously stood on the site. It is in a similar style to other houses on the road, mostly built c1722. The house was originally owned by Walter Runciman MP, who famously defeated Winston Churchill in a by-election in 1899, and later became 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford. It was the residence of the bishops of London until the early 1990s.

No 19 Cowley Street with cone-shaped link snuffers on either side of its gate posts. These hark back to the days when street lighting was a rarity and so link boys, as they were known, would be paid to light the way for those travelling after dark. Once the destination was reached, the torches would be extinguished by placing them into the link snuffers.

Originally built as the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway, the building went on to serve as the headquarters of the British Liberal Democrats. But it has since been repurposed and refurbished as a private residence.

Designed by architect Horace Field in 1904

In 1898 the North Eastern Railway (NER) chose Field as architect for their new main headquarters in York, now the Grand hotel. Working with William Bell the company's architect, whose input was mainly structural or contractual, the office buildings were constructed between 1900 and 1906, with Field receiving £1,750 payment for his work.^[6] Field also received the commission to design the NER's London offices at 4 Cowley Street, Westminster, his plans were submitted 1904 and the building completed 1906.

Mary Field's friendship with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and her circle of friends led to him becoming the consulting architect to the New Hospital for Women on Euston Road from 1888 to 1905

n 1936 Brendan Bracken, a resident and close confidant of Winston Churchill, had it renamed Lord North Street as it sounded grander, and so it was renamed after the Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782 who lost America, Frederick North, Lord North.

The “area” also contained a coal vault used for storage.A collier unloaded coal from a cart directly into the coal vault. This practice prevented dirty coal sacks from being dragged through the house. Coal was dumped down a chute via a coal hole. The coal would then be used for fires or the kitchen stove. (Gaelen Foley)  The design of the coal hatch, which was locked from the inside, would vary from house to house. Coal holes were in use from the early 1800s to the middle 1900s, when the Clean Air Act made the burning of coal illegal. (Knowledge of London)

As war in Europe loomed in 1938, the Anderson shelter was designed to offer UK householders rudimentary protection during air raids.

By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Anderson shelters had been installed in the gardens of around 1.5 million houses in the areas most expected to be targeted by the Luftwaffe. A further 2.1 million were installed over the course of the war.

Harold Wilson, twice Prime Minister who in November 1974 alleged that renegade MI5 operatives had broken into his home.^[6]

After enjoying those quite, quaint back-streets of Old Westminster, the icing on the cake is Smith Square, developed in the 1720's and dominated by the former church of St John the Evangelist which seems to be bursting out of the meagre space it has been allocated.

In the time of Charles I, he entered the House of Commons in an attempt to arrest 5 Members of Parliament. He was foiled in the attempt by the Speaker who refused to give the location of the MPs stating he served the will of the House.

This was the start of the English Civil War which led to the abolition of the Monarchy and Charles losing his head.

The convention is that because of the disastrous entry of Charles I into the House of Commons no monarch will enter the House of Commons unless specifically invited and that has never happened. The monarch speaks to the House of Commons in the House of Lords.
There is a longstanding tradition (rather than a legal rule) that the monarch cannot enter the House of Commons, reflecting a principle that the executive should not intimidate representatives of the people.

Visit the public galleries in the House of Commons and the House of Lords and watch MPs and Peers question the government and debate current issues and legislation.UK residents and overseas visitors are welcome to watch debates in both Houses from the public galleries. Watching debates in Parliament is free of charge for all visitors.

The galleries are open to the public from Monday to Thursday (and some Fridays).

Simon de Montfort’s famous 1265 Parliament opened in Westminster Hall. The home of the medieval Parliament was the old Palace of Westminster, which burned down in a fire in 1834. Parliament did not always meet at Westminster. It met wherever the King was, including York, Northampton, Nottingham, Winchester, Salisbury and other places. By the 15th century it was generally based at Westminster.

In 1352 it first met in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey, and in 1397 it moved from there to the Refectory, or dining hall, of the Abbey.

1530. Henry VIII moved his main residence to WHITEHALL after the old royal apartments at Palace of Westminster were themselves destroyed by fire. Although the Whitehall palace has not survived, the area where it was located is still called Whitehall and has remained a centre of the British government.

Joseph Mallord William Turner English Born 1775 – 1851 Detail from The Burning of the Houses of Parliament, October 16, 1834 1834 or 1835 Oil on canvas Shortly before 7 o’clock last night the inhabitants of Westminster and of the districts on the opposite bank of the river, were thrown into the utmost confusion and alarm by the sudden breaking out of one of the most terrific conflagrations that has been witnessed for many years past….The Houses of the Lords and Commons and the adjacent buildings were on fire.

So wrote the London Times on October 17, 1834. Turner witnessed the event, along with tens of thousands of spectators, and recorded what he saw in quick sketches that became the basis for this painting. Flames consume Saint Stephen’s Hall, the House of Commons and eerily illuminate the towers of Westminster Abbey, which would be spared. On the right the exaggerated scale and plunging perspective of Westminster Bridge intensify the drama of the scene, which Turner observed from the south bank of the Thames River.

The John Howard McFadden Collection. M 1928-1-41.

From the Placard: The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Emily Wilding Davison was particularly committed to 'deeds not words', notably hiding in the House of Commons on a number of occasions, including on Census night in April 1911 when she spent the night in a cupboard in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in order to state 'House of Commons' as her address on her census return.

She was imprisoned eight times for offences including assault and stone-throwing. Her final, and most dramatic, act was to step out in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby in June 1913. It is unclear whether she intended to commit suicide, but she died soon afterwards of her injuries.

Find out more at: Emily Wilding Davison and Parliament

The Women's Freedom League^[1]was an organisation in the United Kingdom from 1907 to 1961 which campaigned for women's suffrage, pacifism and sexual equality. It was founded by former members of the Women's Social and Political Unionafter the Pankhursts decided to rule without democratic support from their members.^[2]

The ELFS appealed to WORKING class WOMEN and MEN (who, by the way, did it have all of them the full right to vote), and to vote was not the only object of their activism, but social and working rights as well

Intellectual, political leader, activist and writer. Born Suffolk and brought up at Snape where her family owned the maltings. Pioneer of the women's suffrage movement but she advocated a non-violent, gradual approach which caused the Pankhursts to split off and form a more militant group. Fawcett led the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies 1897 -1919. She was governor of Bedford College, London (now Royal Holloway), and co-founder of Newnham College, Cambridge in 1875.

Married to Henry Fawcett they were a close, politically radical couple. Widowed in 1884, aged 37, she and her daughter moved from their house in Vauxhall (and Cambridge) to Gower Street where she continued her political activities. Died there.

Younger sister to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.She was the first female doctor to be trained in Britain and went on to promote the medical training of women at a time when medicine was an all-male profession. Elder sister of Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Mother of Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson. Established in the disused St Giles workhouse buildings during WW1 under the command of Dr Flora Murray & Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson (both suffragettes), this 573-bed hospital is the only British army hospital to have been staffed entirely by women, 180 of them.

In February 1778 a fateful incident saw women banned from the public galleries of the House of Commons. Prior to this, in spite of their lack of an official or legal role in political life, women could and did engage with the Commons and its political happenings through familial ties. However, on the day in question, the Speaker called for the public galleries to be cleared but a group of female spectators refused, initiating what The Times described as ‘a state of most extraordinary ferment and commotion’ as ‘officers found their duty of turning out the fair intruders no easy work; a violent and determined resistance was offered to them’. The consequence of this was that when the public galleries were reopened, women were no longer admitted.

When Ian Gow, the member for Eastbourne, rose to his feet on 21 November 1989 to make the first televised speech in our most ancient of parliaments, it is fair to say he wasn’t too happy about it.

In October 1943, following the destruction of the Commons Chamber by incendiary bombs during the Blitz, the Commons debated the question of rebuilding the chamber. With Winston Churchill's approval, they agreed to retain its adversarial rectangular pattern instead changing to a semi-circular or horse-shoe design favoured by some legislative assemblies. Churchill insisted that the shape of the old Chamber was responsible for the two-party system which is the essence of British parliamentary democracy: 'we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.'

A long overdue refurbishment of the historic Palace of Westminster is due. MP and former leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom has expressed fears about the building’s fire risks and says it could potentially turn into ‘Britain’s Notre Dame’. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy

In some of the Commonwealth realms, a division bell is a bell rung in or around parliament to signal a division (a vote) to members of the relevant chamber so that they may participate. There are 172 division bells located outside the Palace of Westminster, in nearby government offices and even MP's private residences.^[6] Public establishments fitted with division bells

1843: Construction begins on the Clock Tower. Foundation stone laid.

Journalists during Queen Victoria's reign called it St Stephen's Tower. As members of Parliament originally sat at St Stephen's Hall, these journalists referred to anything related to the House of Commons as "news from St Stephens" (the Palace does contain a feature called St Stephen's Tower, located above the public entrance).

  2012: The Clock Tower is renamed the Elizabeth Tower to honour HM Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.  

1852: John Dent is appointed to build the clock to the designs of Edmund Beckett Denison. This is the same year that the New Palace of Westminster was opened by Queen Victoria at the State Opening. 

On top of the pendulum is a small stack of pre-decimal penny coins; these are to adjust the time of the clock.

1856: The first 'Big Ben' bell is cast at Warners of Norton near Stockton-on-Tees. The bell was originally to be called 'Royal Victoria'.  

1857: The first 'Big Ben' develops a 1.2m crack during testing. Warners, the bell's manufacturer, and Edmund Beckett Denison, designer of the Great Clock, clash over who is responsible for the damage.  

1858: In April, the second 'Big Ben' is cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in East London. It is transported to New Palace Yard on a carriage drawn by 16 white horses and raised to the belfry.  

1859: The Great Clock starts ticking on 31 May and the Great Bell's strikes are heard for the first time on 11 July. Later that year, Big Ben is found to be fractured again. Big Ben remains silent with the largest quarter bell striking the hourly chime.  

1863: At the suggestion of Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, Big Ben is turned 90 degrees and the hammer size reduced, allowing Big Ben to strike the hours once more. 

The origin of the bell’s nickname is uncertain. One popular account states that it was named after Benjamin Caunt, a heavyweight boxing champion. Another contends that it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, a Welsh Civil Engineer who oversaw the construction.

1716: The bell from the clock tower is recast and later hung in the South West Tower of St Paul's Cathedral. If Big Ben is ever unable to strike, the bell in St Paul's is heard instead.  

"The tilt is now just about visible. You can see it if you stand on Parliament Square and look east, toward the river. I have heard tourists there taking photographs saying 'I don't think it is quite vertical' - and they are quite right," emeritus professor and senior research investigator at Imperial College, London, John Burland, told the Sunday Telegraph.

The level of the tilt has accelerated since 2003, increasing to 0.9 mm a year, compared to the long-term average rate of 0.65 mm a year, the report revealed.

Speaker's House, the official residence, is at the northeast corner of the Palace of Westminster and is used for official functions and meetings, with private accommodation in a four-bedroom apartment upstairs.

DURING THE 17TH CENTURY, A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

SIMPLY HAD TO CATCH THE SPEAKERS EYE" BEFORE HE COULD STAND AND SPEAK.

SIR JOHN TREVOR, A HARD DRINKING, UNCOUTH WELSH LAWYER WAS "SPEAKER" DURING THIS PERIOD.

HE HAD SUCH A FEROCIOUS SQUINT THAT NO-ONE COULD BE CERTAIN WHICH MEMBER HE WAS LOOKING AT, AND FURIOUS ROWS BROKE OUT WHEN TWO MEMBERS GOT UP AT THE SAME TIME AND CLAIMED HE WAS LOOKING AT THEM.

TO GET ROUND THE PROBLEM SIR JOHN

DECIDED THAT FROM THEN ON SPEAKERS WOULD HAVE TO

ANNOUNCE THE PERSON THEY HAD CHOSEN TO

• SPEAK BY NAME, TO THIS DAY SPEAKERS HAVE TO MEMORIZE THE NAMES OF ALL 650 MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

Can anyone clarify the location of the UK's first roundabout. Wikipedia has it as being in Letchworth Garden City, whilst Dumplington Circle (now called Ellesmere Circle), in Trafford Park is well known locally as being the UK's first.

What about the first traffic lights?