I was fortunate to be invited to dinner recently at the House of Commons with two MPs, one my first time elected local MP and the other an old university chum, now a Minister. Being early for my meeting in the Central Lobby, where I bumped into a solicitor I know (what a small world it is!) I had time to marvel at the building that is Westminster Hall. Dating from the 11th century it survived the Great Fire in 1834 thanks to the intervention of Sir Walter Eliot who decided the Hall should be preserved and the then Chamber of the House of Commons should be allowed to burn. It also survived the best efforts to destroy it by Goering’s Luftwaffe in the 1940s and attempts by the Provisional IRA in the 1970s.
What a glory it is, particularly with its magnificent hammer beam roof, dating from the reign of Richard II (1377-99) when the original three aisles dividing the building from 1097 were replaced by “the greatest creation of mediaeval timber architecture”.