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It’s a huge structure on the bank of the river Thames in Westminster district of London. The building connects with the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall Street.

Originally, from 1529 the palace has been the English monarchs’ residence. After the fire in 1834, the building has been completely rebuilt and now it serves as the place of British Parliamentary meetings.

the world, but the artful decoration of the facade allows it not to look massive. The architect Augustus Pugin played a major role in its exterior and interior design. The Palace stretches along the river for 300 m, its complex includes 1100 rooms, 100 stairs, 11 janitors

was the Gunpowder plot of 1605. on November 5, the Catholic guy Fawkes and his accomplices intended to blow up the Parliament building during the opening of its session by king James I. the Rioters laid barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Palace, but did not have time to execute the plan, as they were discovered and arrested. Since that time, the Parliament has had a tradition: every year on November 5, guards dressed in ancient costumes and armed with halberds and lanterns make a ceremonial tour of the entire building of the Palace.

At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries, as well as in the first quarter of the XIX century, the old Palace was renovated, but in the autumn of 1834, its building was almost completely destroyed by fire.