Over the last twelve months I’ve been going round with my video camera taking some very unusual views of the place. Westminster: Behind Closed Doors with Tony Benn, BBC 1995
Every day at 2.25 p.m. the Speaker leaves her house in the Palace and forms a procession with her chaplain, her secretary, her train-bearer, and the Sergeant-at-arms. ibid.
‘If parliament is to survive, it must be a workshop and not a museum.’ ibid. Benn speaking in Commons
The royal assent to Acts of Parliament is still even today given in Norman French. ibid.
At the other end of the building is the Victoria Tower. ibid.
There’s an absolute hierarchy of lavatories in the Houses of Parliament. ibid.
The skill of the craftsmen who build these buildings is absolutely unbelievable. ibid.
In the middle of the 19th century the new Palace of Westminster, home to parliament, was approaching completion. The new buildings had been decorated with the ancient symbols of the four nations that made up a state that was then only half a century old. Union with David Olusoga III: The Two Nations, BBC 2023
Westminster: the heart of London. For a thousand years it’s been the centre of power. It was here on a November morning four-hundred years ago that a group of Catholic rebels planned to blow up parliament and change the country for ever. It would become one of the most famous events in British history, for ever known as the Gunpowder Plot. The Gunpowder Plot: Countdown to Treason aka Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, Tracy Borman & Xand van Tulleken, Channel 5 2023
4th November 1605: King James is now on the throne. While London sleeps, one man lies in wait in a cellar beneath parliament surrounded by barrels of gunpowder. His name is Guy Fawkes. If all goes to plan, in nine hours he will ignite thirty-six barrels of explosive and blow up the House of Lords, killing hundreds of people including the King and the entire government. It is the culmination of eighteen months of meticulous planning. And the success of it all lies in Guy Fawkes’ hands. ibid.
Catesby and his fellow plotters were convinced that it was the only way to stop the persecution of Catholics. ibid.
They needed the time. Digging the tunnel would take months. ibid.
Thousands of people would have been killed or injured. ibid.
With ten days to go someone tipped off the authorities. ibid.
Fear and paranoia were spreading through the gang. ibid.
Fawkes had been caught redhanded. ibid.
The interrogation was carried out by two of the king’s most senior ministers. ibid.
Seven of the plotters including Thomas Percy and mastermind Robert Catesby were also fearing for their lives. Holed up in a Staffordshire manor house they knew they were being hunted. ibid.
By 10th November the entire plot had been exposed. ibid.