Named after Queen Victoria, The Victoria Tower is the tallest tower in the Palace of Westminster. The tower stands at 325 ft, and it is just slightly taller than the Palace’s more famous tower commonly known as ‘Big Ben’. Following the 1834 fire that destroyed most of the original Palace, architect Sir Charles Barry was commissioned to build a new palace that included ‘fireproof repositories for books and documents’. Completed in May 1860, the Victoria Tower was one of the first purpose-built archives in the United Kingdom and is now home to the Parliamentary Archives. The grand arch at the base of the tower is the ‘Sovereign’s Entrance’, and it was built wide enough to allow the Queen’s Coach to drive through for the State Openings of Parliament. By tradition, there is only one route that The Queen is allowed to take when she comes to the House of Lords: through the ‘Sovereign’s Entrance’ to the ‘Norman Porch’, and up the ‘Royal Staircase’. Today, the archives are open to members of the public for academic, business and educational research. One of the largest independent scaffolds in Europe was built for the 1990-1994 restoration of the Victoria Tower and used 68 miles of scaffolding tube.
- The Victoria Tower
- www.parliament.uk
- Underground: Westminster