Let it Snow!

Hello again! Hope you've all been well. :) You'll have to forgive me for this entry - it contains a lot more factual information and history than the last, so if that doesn't interest you, you may want to skip it. Otherwise, read on!

This past Saturday ISA took us on a tour of Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. Both tours were extremely interesting, and incredibly powerful in different ways. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside either of the buildings (both for obvious reasons, I think!) so whoever comes to visit me will just have to experience them first-hand.

Westminster Abbey was, as expected, beautiful. It was not, however, laid out as expected. I thought we would enter into one massive hall and that would be it. Instead, it consisted of a few very large areas connected by smaller areas and chapels. The official name of the Abbey is the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster. Construction on the Abbey began in the 1040s, when King Edward built a monastery on the site. In the middle of the 13th century construction began to transform it into the iconic Gothic structure that it is today. The intricacy and stately elegance of the outside is reflected in all parts of the Abbey; there's even a room with a mirror in the middle so that visitors can better see the ceiling!

Architecture aside (though it is hard to so easily cast aside the spires and the windows and the arches) there is a staggering amount of history contained and commemorated in the building. From the moment you walk through the first entryway of the western doors, you are presented with completely unique aspects of British history. To the right is King Edward's chair behind some glass (if you've seen The King's Speech, you know which chair I'm talking about), and in front of you is the only grave that no one may step on - the grave of the Unknown Warrior. The body was taken from a battlefield in France, and is marked by a large slab of black Belgian marble, buried in English wood, to commemorate all the countries involved in that theatre of battle during World War I. The black marble is surrounded by fake but brilliantly red poppies. It's quite a sight to see.

A floorplan of the Abbey to give perspective

Of course there are other graves to see as well - we then headed to see where Sir. Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried, then over to some of the kings and queens. We saw where Queens Elizabeth and (Bloody) Mary are buried. We went through a few other chapels, etc, but what was most impressive to me was Poet's Corner. It's where basically all of the distinguished English literary minds are either buried or commemorated, and it's pretty much an English major's dream. Plaques and statues for Shakespeare, Austen, all of the Brontes, Wordsworth, Carroll, and so on, were next to the graves of Chaucer, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Charles Dickens! (Speaking of Mr. Dickens - tomorrow is his 200th birthday. Woohoo!) I made sure to step on all of them, and give a good hearty stomp on Thomas Hardy's grave to reprimand him for writing The Mayor of Casterbridge. He deserved it.

We then wandered around as the Abbey prepared for the Evensong, a beautiful midafternoon service of hymns. Then, after some lunch, we met up again with Tom (who always seems a bit frazzled - I kind of imagine him like a awkwardly gangly sheepdog trying to herd around a bunch of ADD sheep) who took us over to the Houses of Parliament! We went through some strict security (think the airport without having to take off our shoes) and were issued visitor's passes, complete with our faces on them!

We walked through a courtyard into Westminster Hall, the only remaining area of the original structure built in the middle ages. Back in the day it served as a palace (and it still is officially titled the Palace of Westminster), before much of it burned down in the 1500s, and was instead converted house Parliament. Then more of it burned down in the 1800s, and was rebuilt, which brings us to the building we see today. At least, for the House of Lords. But I'll get into that in a moment.

The tour began with a list of rules - you may not take pictures, you may not eat or drink, and (most baffling) you may only sit in the areas pointed out to you. The idea behind this is that visitors are neither Lords nor elected officials, and may therefore not sit in the places designated for them. This made sense to me while we were in the official House of Lords or House of Commons rooms, but it applied to much of the rest of the building as well.

The Clock Tower

We were taken all the way to the other side of the Palace to begin the tour - to the Sovereign's Entrance at  Victoria Tower, where the Queen enters to perform her main function as a integral piece of the government: open the Houses of Parliament. Each May, the Queen comes in, puts the crown on her head, and enters the House of Lords. There, a secret signal is given to the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, who goes to fetch the House of Commons. When he reaches their door, it is slammed in his face to signify that the House of Commons is an elected body and does not, therefore, have to come running when summoned. The Gentleman Usher bangs on the door three times (there's a gouged out area of the door where the Usher always hits) and they open the door and come with him to squeeze as many of them as possible into the entryway of the House of Lords. Endlessly fascinating!

The route the Queen takes is through the Sovereign's Entrance, into the Robing Room (where she puts on the crown), through Royal Gallery (which features two hugely elaborate paintings of battle scenes and statues and paintings of kings and queens past), then through the Prince's Chamber (walking right up to a rather imposing statue of Queen Victoria herself) and into the Chamber of the House of Lords.

The area of the House of Lords is decorated in a very medieval style, very lavish, with tons of gold gilt. The Chamber area has a gigantic and incredibly sparkly throne in it (for the Queen, when she's there) and two areas of rows of benches (with red cushions) for the various members to sit and face each other. We were, of course, not allowed to sit, and our guide was not allowed to address us from the floor (again, the same idea - only those who are elected/are lords may speak from the floor).

We then moved through some lobbies (where we learned that the term "to lobby" had its origins in that if people had a grievance or concern they would wait in the lobby to try to speak to a Lord as he entered or left the Chamber. Maybe people knew this, but I did not) and into the are of the House of Commons. This area has been built much more recently - in the 1950s, after much of it was destroyed during the London Blitz. It is far less ornate, and (in my opinion) far more stately. One of the columns, though, was built from the rubble of the old building in commemoration. Around the Members' Lobby (the area outside the Commons Chamber) are various statues of old Prime Ministers. Most prominently are the four bronze ones: Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Clement Attlee, and the Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher.

The House of Commons Chamber is much like the House of Lords except bigger, with an area for press and observers on opposite ends on the floor above, and with green cushions rather than red. The government party (whichever party is in control) sits on one side with the Prime Minister, facing against the opposition party. Very unlike the rounded chambers of our own Congress. However, there are a lot more majority parties in Parliament than in Congress; whereas Congress is dominated almost entirely by Republicans and Democrats, Parliament has (as the government) Conservaties and Liberal Democrats, and (as the official opposition) the Labor party, backed by a smattering of other smaller parties.

I could go more into some of the details that we learned but already this has been long-winded and I'm sure at least some people have lost interest. Nonetheless, if you're still with me, know that I found all of this extremely interesting, and would love to try to learn more about how the British government is run. I'm still a little fuzzy on how the Prime Minister comes to power (he or she isn't actually elected, no? Why did they decide to do it this way?) and how, exactly, the other Parliaments of Scotland and Wales work, as well as further clarification on the specific duties of the House of Lords vs. the House of Commons. So I might spend some time researching that.

Well, anyway. This weekend we're headed to Stonehenge and Bath, so expect a more picture filled and adventurous blog post to come. Cheers! :)

(Also, if you missed it, it snowed here this weekend - something of a rarity, I gather! It wasn't much, maybe two inches, but it was funny to watch people panic over it. A bunch of tube lines shut down! Crazy. But very beautiful. Here's a picture from out of my kitchen window! Maybe next time it snows it'll be on a weekday and class will be cancelled...)