page_title: Palace of Westminster
section_title: Members' Lobby
hierarchical_section_title: Palace of Westminster / Interior / Members' Lobby
caption_attribution_description: English: The Marquess of Cholmondeley, the Lord Great Chamberlain, Baroness Hayman, the Lord Speaker, John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and Barack Obama, the President of the United States, examining a statue of Sir Winston Churchill in the Members' Lobby during a tour of the Palace of Westminster prior to the President's speech to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 25 May 2011. The Lord Great Chamberlain uses his white staff as a verger's rod, to indicate a path of travel to VIP's, including to the monarch at the State opening of Parliament. The stick is held up for maximum visibility (i.e. in a crowded room), and the VIP follows it.
context_page_description: The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London, England.
  Its name, which derives from the neighbouring Westminster Abbey, may refer to several historic structures but most often: the Old Palace, a medieval building-complex destroyed by fire in 1834, or its replacement, the New Palace that stands today. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and, for ceremonial purposes, retains its original status as a royal residence. Committees appointed by both houses manage the building and report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and to the Lord Speaker.
  The first royal palace constructed on the site dated from the 11th century, and Westminster became the primary residence of the Kings of England until fire destroyed the royal apartments in 1512.
context_section_description: Continuing north from the Central Lobby is the Commons' Corridor. It is of almost identical design to its southern counterpart and is decorated with scenes of 17th-century political history between the Civil War and the Revolution of 1688. They were painted by Edward Matthew Ward and include subjects like Monk Declaring for a Free Parliament and The Lords and Commons Presenting the Crown to William III and Mary II in the Banqueting Hall. Then, mirroring the arrangement at the Lords part of the Palace, is another antechamber, the Members' Lobby. In this room, Members of Parliament hold discussions or negotiations, and are often interviewed by accredited journalists, collectively known as "The Lobby".
  The room is similar to the Peers' Lobby but plainer in design and slightly larger, forming a cube 13.7 metres (45 ft) on all sides. After the heavy damage it sustained in the 1941 bombing, it was rebuilt in a simplified style, something most evident in the floor, which is almost completely unadorned. The archway of the door leading into the Commons Chamber has been left unrepaired as a reminder of the evils of war, and is now known as the Rubble Arch or Churchill Arch. It is flanked by bronze statues of Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George, the prime ministers who led Britain through the Second and First World War respectively; a foot of each is conspicuously shiny, a result of a long tradition of MPs rubbing them for good luck on their way in before their maiden speech. The Lobby contains the busts and statues of most 20th-century prime ministers, as well as two large boards where MPs can receive letters and telephone messages, designed for the use of the House and installed in the early 1960s.
caption: US President Barack Obama (right) in the Members' Lobby during a tour of the Palace in May 2011. With him are, from the left: the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, holding his white staff of office; the Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman; and the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.
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