The crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel (not shown to visitors) is one of the few parts remaining which dates from before the fire. The chapel is said to have been first built by the King whose name it bore, but was rebuilt by Edward I. and greatly altered by his two immediate successors. It was used for the sittings of the House of Commons after Edward VI.'s reign. At the end of the seventeenth century it was much altered by Wren, but it perished in 1834. A small chapel on the south side was called Our Lady of the Pew. The oldest part of the ancient palace remaining is Westminster Hall, built by William Rufus as a part of a projected new palace. He held his Court here in 1099, and, on hearing a remark on the vastness of his hall, he declared that it would be only a bedroom to the palace when finished. However, he himself had to occupy much narrower quarters before he could carry out his scheme. Richard II. raised the hall and gave it the splendid hammer-beam roof, one of the finest feats in carpentry extant. George IV. refaced the exterior of the hall with stone.
In the eighteenth century the Courts of Justice (Chancery and King's Bench) were held here, and as the hall was also lined with shops, and the babble and walking to and fro were incessant, it is not wonderful that justice was sometimes left undone. It would be difficult—nay, impossible—to tell in detail all the strange historic scenes enacted in Westminster Hall in the limited space at disposal, and as they are all concerned rather with the nation than with Westminster, mere mention of the principal ones will be enough. Henry II. caused his eldest son to be crowned in the hall in his own lifetime, at which ceremony the young Prince disdainfully asserted he was higher in rank than his father, having a King for father and a Queen for mother, whereas his father could only claim blood royal on the mother's side.
Edward III. here received King John of France, brought captive by the Black Prince. In 1535 Sir Thomas More was tried here; later there were many trials, the greatest of which was that of King Charles I., followed by that of the regicides, brought to justice and the fruit of their crimes in a way they had not expected when they took prominent parts in the first great drama. Cromwell's head was stuck upon the southern gable of the hall, where it remained for twenty years. The trial of the Seven Bishops caused great excitement, that of Lords Kenmure and Derwentwater hardly less. Lord Byron was tried in Westminster Hall, and every child has heard of the arraignment of Warren Hastings. Surely, if ever a building had memories of historic dramas, played upon its floor as on a stage, it is Rufus's great hall at Westminster.
Parliament was first called to Westminster in Edward I.'s reign. The Commons sat for 300 years in the Abbey Chapter-house, then for 300 years more in St. Stephen's Chapel. In 1790 a report on the buildings declared them to be defective and in great danger of fire, a prophecy fulfilled in 1834. On the evening of October 16 in that year the wife of a doorkeeper saw a light under one of the doors, and gave an alarm. The place was made for a bonfire; a strong wind blowing from the south, and afterwards south-west, drove the flames along the dried woodwork and through the draughty passages. As the flames got a stronger and stronger hold, the scene from the further bank of the river was magnificent. Until three o'clock the next day the fire raged, and Westminster Hall and the crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel alone survived the wreck. The cause of the fire is said to have been the heating of the flues by some workmen burning a quantity of tallies or ancient notched sticks.
The present Houses of Parliament, built after the fire from Sir Charles Barry's designs, have been the cause of much of that criticism which is applied to the work of some people by others who certainly could not do so well themselves. The material used is magnesian limestone, which, unfortunately, has not worn well; and the erection took seventeen years (1840-57). On Saturday afternoons the door under the Victoria Tower, south end, is open, and anyone may walk through the principal rooms. This is well worth doing, though what is to be seen is mostly modern. What will chiefly astonish strangers is the smallness of the House of Commons.
The Clock Tower, 316 feet high, containing Big Ben, and standing at the north end of the present Houses of Parliament, is a notable object, and a landmark for miles around. Ben was called after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was First Commissioner of Works at the time he was brought into being.
Bridge Street was formed at the building of the bridge, and is almost on the site of the Long Woolstaple.
In the reign of King Edward III., in the year 1353, Westminster was made one of the ten towns in England where the staple or market for wool might be held. This had formerly been held in Flanders, and the removal of the market to England brought a great increase to the Royal revenue, for on every sack exported the King received a certain sum. Pennant says: "The concourse of people which this removal of the Woolstaple to Westminster occasioned caused this Royal village to grow into a considerable town."
Henry VI. held six wool-houses in the Staple, which he granted to the Dean and Canons of St. Stephen's.