Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

You're on the corner of Parliament Square, with the clock tower and the Houses of Parliament straight ahead. Most of what you see exists because someone tidied up a little too eagerly one October day in 1834. For centuries, the Treasury had kept its accounts on wooden sticks cut with notches, a kind of medieval receipt. When the system was finally abolished, two cartloads of old sticks were left over. They were burned in the furnaces beneath the House of Lords. The furnaces overheated, and the fire spread through almost the entire old palace. Only medieval Westminster Hall was saved. It's on the right of the front. The new palace was designed by Charles Barry, with a young Augustus Pugin drawing almost every detail. Big Ben is really the name of the great bell inside the tower, not the tower itself. The first bell cracked during testing. The second cracked too, just months after it started striking. The fix was to turn it a quarter round and give it a lighter hammer. It still rings with that crack today. Look right to the top of the tower. If the lantern up there is lit after dark, Parliament is still sitting. Next stop: Westminster Abbey, about 300 metres or 4 minutes across Parliament Square to the west entrance.