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The Palace of Westminster, on the banks of the River Thames in Westminster, London, is the home of the House of Commons and the House of Lords which forms the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is also known as the Houses of Parliament.
The layout of the Palace is intricate, with its existing buildings containing nearly 1,200 rooms, 100 staircases and well over 3 kilometres (2 miles) of passages. Among the original historic buildings is Westminster Hall, used nowadays for major public ceremonial events.
The Commons assembled in St Stephen's until 1834 when the Palace was burned down. This fire destroyed almost all of the Palace except Westminster Hall, the crypt of St Stephen's Chapel, the adjacent cloisters and the Jewel Tower.
The present Houses of Parliament were built over the next 30 years. They were the work of the architect Sir Charles Barry and his assistant Augustus Welby Pugin. The design incorporated Westminster Hall and the remains of St Stephen's Chapel.
The House of Commons Chamber was destroyed in a German air attack in 1941. It was rebuilt after the Second World War, taking care to preserve the essential features of Barry's building - the architect was Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The new Chamber was completed in 1950.
The Westminster Hall, which survived the fire of 1834 and the bombing of 1941, is now used for major public ceremonies. Here Distinguished heads of state sometimes address both Houses of Parliament. The Hall is also the place where lyings in state, of monarchs, consorts, and, rarely, very distinguished statesmen, take place. The first such occasion was Gladstone in 1898, followed by, in the last century, King George VI [1952], Queen Mary [1953] and Sir Winston Churchill [1965]. In April 2002 several hundred thousand people queued to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, as she lay in state in the Hall.
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