Victoria Tower
| Victoria Tower | |
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The Victoria Tower stands at the House of Lords end of the Palace of Westminster
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| General information | |
| Type | Tower |
| Architectural style | Perpendicular Gothic |
| Location | London, England, UK |
| Coordinates | 51°29′54.01″N 00°07′31.76″W / 51.4983361°N 0.1254889°WCoordinates: 51°29′54.01″N 00°07′31.76″W / 51.4983361°N 0.1254889°W |
| Completed | 1860 |
| Height | 98.5 metres (323 ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Charles Barry |
The Victoria Tower is the square tower at the south-west end of the Palace of Westminster in London, facing south and west onto Black Rod's Garden and Old Palace Yard. At 98.5 metres (323 ft), it is slightly taller than the more famous Elizabeth Tower (formerly known as the Clock Tower and popularly known as 'Big Ben') at the north end of the Palace (96.3 metres (316 ft)). It houses the Parliamentary Archives in archive conditions meeting the BS 5454 standard, on 12 floors. All 14 floors of the building were originally linked via a single wrought-iron Victorian staircase of 553 steps, of which five floors survive.
The main entrance at the base of the tower is the Sovereign's Entrance, through which the Monarch passes at the State Opening of Parliament. On top of the Victoria Tower is an iron flagstaff from which flies the Union Flag or, when the Sovereign is present in the Palace, the Royal Standard. The flag used to be flown only on days when either House of Parliament sat, but since January 2010 it has been flown every day.
The Victoria Tower was purpose-built as a "fireproof repository for books and documents", as required by the competition to rebuild the Palace of Westminster after the fire of 16 October 1834, which had destroyed the building and almost all of the records of the House of Commons. The records of the House of Lords survived the conflagration because they were, at the time, stored in the Jewel Tower, which was at a distance from the main building and still stands across the road from the Victoria Tower.
Charles Barry's design for the new Palace of Westminster featured a tower over the Sovereign's Entrance, 12 floors of which incorporated record storage. Augustus Pugin produced most of the architectural designs and elevations for the project and also the interior design. The first stone of the Tower was laid by Queen Victoria on 22 December 1843, and construction was completed in 1860.
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