Victoria Tower - a unique building of London

The Victoria Tower is the tallest tower in London's Westminster Palace, whose height is 323 feet, that is 98.45 meters, which is two meters more than the world-famous Big Ben. At the time of the final erection (the second half of the XIX century) became the highest square structure of the world. The Victoria Tower is located in the south-west corner of the residence of the British Parliament. The building was erected in the style of a new Gothic (neo-Gothic) English architect Charles Barry.

The Empress of India and the Queen of Great Britain

Victoria, in honor of which the largest number of architectural buildings were erected, did not seem to make any special impression: she had a plump constitution and was no more than one hundred and fifty centimeters. The first years after the death of her husband Albert, she was not so famous in Britain as after the publication of her letters and some diary entries, thanks to which the world learned about the scale of her political influence.

In the second half of the XIX century, she enjoyed popular love for the fact that she embodied the empire in a matriarchal form. Her name around the world named a variety of memorial sites, memorials and towers. Victoria laid the first stone in the construction of the future south-west building of the Palace of Westminster, which was completely built by 1860.

History of construction

The Royal Tower - it was this name that bore the future archival building during its design. The bearing structure was constructed of cast iron, after which the builders immured it in a masonry. The Victoria Tower consists of fourteen floors, twelve of which are occupied by two million archival documents of the British Parliament. In the period from 1948 to 1963 and from 2000 to 2004, the keeper of political history underwent grandiose reconstruction, the aim of which was to improve the storage conditions in archival rooms.

The structure of the tower (both external and external) is fire resistant. In 1834, during the fire that broke out at the Palace of Westminster, all the securities of the House of Commons were destroyed , while documents belonging to the House of Lords were not harmed because they were kept in the Jewels Tower (located in the Westminster Palace). It was this event that prompted the government to build a refractory archive room. The top of the tower is made in a pyramidal shape, on which the flagstaff is located. Its height is 20 meters.

Purpose

The main function of the tower is the storage of parliamentary documents. The length of the shelves containing various securities is nine kilometers! The Tower of Victoria stores in its cast-iron walls government acts, manuscripts, the Bill of Rights and death sentences that have been imposed since the fifteenth century.

The building has a special access (its name is "Royal Entrance"), through which the royal people pass during the ceremonies of the solemn opening of government meetings or other equally important state events. The entrance is made in the form of an arch, which is richly decorated with a sculptural group. During the king's stay in the palace (we recall that there is only a queen in Britain at the moment), the tower of Victoria in London is crowned with the official flag of the incumbent ruler. On ordinary days, the flag of the United Kingdom flutters on the flagstaff.

Palace of Westminster

This building is known throughout the world as the residence of the British Parliament. On the territory of the Palace of Westminster is the park "Gardens of the Tower of Victoria," which was named after the highest building of the British Parliament.

After the fire in 1834, which destroyed almost all buildings, a competition was held among architects to restore damaged buildings. As a result, Charles Barry and his assistant were selected, who in 30 years successfully built the palace, including the tower of Queen Victoria. The restored building was joined by architectural structures, miraculously escaped from the fire.