Houses of Parliament

The Houses of Parliament, also called the Palace of Westminster, (PROSE: The Book of the War) were the two houses of England's, later the United Kingdom's, legislature: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot) These were built in a way that made them appear balanced across two axes, land to river, and from the Commons' Speaker's Chair to the Lords' Woolsack. (PROSE: The Book of the War) Parliament ratified laws and gave assent to British monarch if they wished to raise taxes. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot) When Faction Paradox made the Gregorian Compact with George II, the Houses of Parliament became the centre of their Eleven-Day Empire. (PROSE: Interference)
== History ==
=== Early history ===
In the 13th century, a Rutan ship containing two doomsday weapons that targeted Sontaran DNA crash-landed beneath the future site of Parliament. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
In November 1605, Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes plotted to blow up Parliament as he opposed King James I's anti-Catholic regime. Lady Winters, a Rutan from the crashed ship, awoke from suspended animation and attempted to use the Gunpowder Plot to her advantage by propelling her ship with the explosion. The Eleventh Doctor safely placed Parliament in Earth orbit, while he used a handful of gunpowder barrels belonging to the plotter Guy Fawkes to allow the ship still be launched. Having traced Winters' distress call, Sontarans and Rutans fought with one another inside Parliament while searching for these weapons, but were forced into ceasefire when the Doctor reprogrammed one of weapons to target the Rutans, risking one of the two species to kill their own kind. The Doctor returned Parliament to its rightful place and Fawkes was caught by the king's men before he could light the remaining 36 gunpowder barrels. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
In an aborted timeline, Parliament was destroyed by Berthold Schwarz immediately after Fawkes' failed attempt due to his wish to wipe out all weaponry on Earth, allowing him to break a curse. These events were later undone by the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, and Schwarz's far future self. (PROSE: Black Powder)
In the 1750s, after being arrested for mentioning Christmas, the Second Doctor, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright were taken to the Mayor of London's office in parliament. (PROSE: The Feast)
In 1868, Ramón Salamander visited the Houses of Parliament to try and sell his micro machines to the British Empire only for the Third Doctor to halt his plan. By this time, had a secret tunnel into Parliament. (COMIC: The Heralds of Destruction)
In the 1890s, the Danger Thinkers attacked the Houses of Parliament with their mind powers, but were stopped by the Paternoster Gang. (PROSE: The Insidious Ideas of the Danger Thinkers)
=== 20th and 21st centuries ===
In 1941, during the London Blitz, the Daleks sent an electrical wave that turned on all electronic devices, making the Houses of Parliament and the rest of London light up. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
In 1965, there were less than a dozen women serving in either House of Parliament. (AUDIO: Manhunt)
In the mid-2000s, the arms manufacturer Artemis spoke before representatives of Parliament. (AUDIO: Uncanny Valley)
In the early morning of 1 January 2005, the newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor flew west over the Houses of Parliament whilst clinging by his fingers from his TARDIS' doorway. He narrowly escaped ramming the clock tower, before climbing back aboard and being thrown nearly nine years back in time. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
In the 2000s, in an alternate timeline created by Sarah Jane Smith's actions in 1951 in which the world was destroyed, Luke, Sarah and the Trickster stood at the remains of the Houses of Parliament. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
In 2014, a Kharitite broke into the building to feast on the negative emotions released during Prime Minister's Questions. (COMIC: After Life)
=== Destroyed by the Daleks ===
Parliament was an early target of the 22nd century Dalek invasion, with the politicians being rounded up and exterminated in Parliament Square, (PROSE: Alien Bodies) around a decade before the end of Dalek conquest. (AUDIO: After the Daleks) Even though the Daleks had set fire to the building to kill any surviving British leaders, (PROSE: Alien Bodies) some parts of (AUDIO: After the Daleks) the Palace of Westminster were still standing near the end, circa 2167, with Daleks patrolling the adjacent Westminster Bridge. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
For decades after the liberation of Earth, parliament didn't exist and Britain was split into "domains". (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) Nonetheless, the people met in the Houses of Parliament a short while after the Dalek invasion had ended. Susan Foreman felt this was a fitting place to discuss rebuilding Britain in the aftermath of devastation. (AUDIO: After the Daleks)
In 2199, the Houses were still being restored. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
=== Eleven-Day Empire ===
The days 2-14 September 1752 were "lost" with the conversion from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The London existence of that period was purchased from George II by Grandfather Paradox on behalf of Faction Paradox in the Gregorian Compact, and became their heartland known as the Eleven-Day Empire. The Empire was governed from the chamber of the House of Commons; the speaker's chair was empty, waiting for Grandfather Paradox's return. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)
Though the Eleven-Day Empire was purchased in 1752, its Parliament buildings were based on the ones built at Westminster after the old Parliament burned down during the Star Chamber's attack on the Empire on 16 October, 1834. Godfather Morlock said this was because the newer Parliament buildings "cast longer shadows".
630 Fathers and Mothers of the Faction sat in the House of Commons. They were presided over by the Acting Speaker, since the actual Speaker's Chair was traditionally left empty for Grandfather Paradox. However, not even the highest-ranking members of the Faction would cross the threshold into the House of Lords, and no one would say what lay within. The only person to have entered and left was Cousin Anastasia, who emerged after an hour covered in blood and missing one finger, declaring the formation of the Thirteen-Day Republic.
The Rump Parliament was the Parliament's honorary successor in the City of the Saved. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
== References ==
In 2005, after finding he had a listening device planted on him, the Eighth Doctor joked, "If we're going to blow up Parliament, we'll need some first-rate gunpowder and some trustworthy Catholic horses." (COMIC: The Flood)
In 2011, Clyde Langer objected to letting Sky Smith, who could manipulate electronic devices, enter a power station, comparing it to a "Houses of Parliament tour with Guy Fawkes". (TV: Sky)
== Other realities ==
The Palace of Westminster also existed in Pete's World, in a similar location to its counterpart of the Doctor's universe. (TV: ) The clock tower of the palace, also known as Big Ben, was the location of a UNIT base. (AUDIO: )
In the Daft Dimension, two Zygons attempted an "invasion" of Earth by interrupting a televised news report that appeared to take place outside of the houses. (COMIC: The Daft Dimension 495)
== Behind the scenes ==
In the ultimately unproduced film The Dark Dimension, the Daleks were to have been among several alien races which simultaneously invade London, with one particular scene depicting them gliding across Westminster Bridge on a heading to the Houses of Parliament.
== External links ==
== Footnotes ==
=== Notes ===
Category:City of Westminster
Category:London buildings
Category:London (Pete's World) locations
Category:Buildings from the real world
Category:Buildings visited by the Eleventh Doctor