Alongside the River Thames is Westminster Palace, which from the middle of the 11th Century until 1512, had been the principal residence of the kings of England. The Lords used the buildings and later the Commons, who had no fixed meeting place. At that time Westminster Hall, St Stephen's Cloister and the Jewel Tower were all that remain of the medieval parts of Westminster Palace after the fire of 1834. The architect, Sir Charles Barry constructed the present Houses of Parliament over a thirty-year period. After the devastation of the House of Commons Chamber by wartime bombs, a replacement chamber was built by 1950.
An early church was established on a modest Thorney Island in the Thames and this was the foundation for Westminster Abbey. Edward the Confessor replaced earlier buildings with the Abbey of 1065. Henry II altered this in 1245 and replaced all but the Norman Style nave with the present Abbey Church. The rest of the original building remained intact until the 14th century. Little evidence of the early church remains. Refounded in 1560 by Queen Elizabeth I as the Collegiate Church of Peter; the present Abbey stands to the West of the Houses of Parliament and the ensemble includes the modest St Margaret's Church, which serves as the church for Parliament.