House of Parliament

Saturday the 22nd of February we as students and instructor went to the Houses of Parliaments for one of our study abroad tours. Houses of parliaments are also known as the Palace of Westminster. It is the seat of the two parliamentary houses of the United Kingdom. The House of Lords and the House of Commons. The most famous feature of the Houses of Parliament is its clock tower which is known as Big Ben. As a student studying abroad, it was an amazing learning experience for me. Let’s go in detail about what exactly I learned and about my tour experiences in the palace. 

First off, I learned about the two individual architects who build the Houses of Parliament and their biography. Charles Barry was born on May 23, 1795, to May 12, 1869. He was a British designer greatest known for his role in the innovation of the Houses of Parliament. He also made several other buildings and gardens such as Italianate architecture in Britain, city mansions and public buildings. He has also established the Italian Renaissance garden style. And the other one is Augustus Pugin who was born on March 1st, 1812 to September 14, 1852. He was also a British architect and interior designer of the 19th century. In his petite but penetrating life, he thrived in scheming frequent community churches with all the decorations, furniture and accessories. The most distinguished building is a Parallel Between the Noble Edifices of the 14th and 15th centuries and Shewing the Present Decay of Taste (1836) and the True Principle of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841).

Originally the house of parliament was built in 1016 eleven centuries, it is about 1004 years ago. The original location it was built was Westminster, London. It is a perpendicular gothic shape that has a line of bold, decorative and royal styles. The color of the building is gold with a shining royal style. It has a mass of 4098500000 and it is about 29.5 Meters in Length. The interior building space is very spacious which contains over 1100 rooms,100 staircases and 3 miles of passageways. They are spread over four floors. The ground floor is occupied by offices, dining rooms, and bars, the first floor which is known as the principal floor which houses the main rooms of the palace, including the debating chambers, the lobbies, and libraries. The top two floors are used as committee rooms and office uses.

I learned about the four main functions in the house of parliaments. They are legislation which is making law, a representation which helps on behalf of voters and citizens, scrutiny which examining the government and the last one is the formation of the government. The house of Parliament makes decisions based on the current problems and things that affect all the people. It is open and answerable to the public. The role of this is to support new laws and taxes, embrace the government and debate the issues of the day to find the solutions.

Overall the Parliament visit was what I was looking forward to seeing in London. After visiting the parliament on Saturday, I have learned how exactly the parliament works, how voting works and a typical day at parliament. There are two things I like about the parliament, which is health care and education. Healthcare in Britain is mainly provided by the National Health Service which is a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents of the United Kingdom that is free at the point of use and paid from general taxation. Which is pretty shocking and interesting to me compared to our American system where we do not have free health care. And the other thing I like is the education system. The education system is free from public funds. In America it is free for up to high school, but when furthering the study, it is not. Whereas in the UK it is different and that is what caught my attention. If you are visiting London anytime soon or near in future, I highly recommend to visit Houses of Parliament and learn more about what it has to offer.