Houses of Parliament

The Houses of Parliament was the meeting place of the cabinet of England, later the United Kingdom. It was situated in London, directly beside Big Ben.

It consisted of two houses inside the Palace, the Commons and the Lords. Parliament ratified laws, and gave assent to British monarch if they wished to raise taxes.

In the 13th century, a Rutan ship containing two doomsday weapons that targeted Sontaran DNA crashlanded beneath the future site of Parliament. In 1605, Robert Catesby plotted to blow up the Houses of 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 this plot to her advantage and use the explosion to propel her ship. The Eleventh Doctor instead placed Parliament in Earth orbit, using a handful of gunpowder barrels belonging to the plotter Guy Fawkes to safely launch the ship. 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 James' men before he could light the remaining 36 gunpowder barrels. (VG: The Gunpowder Plot)

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." (DWM: The Flood) Clyde Langer objected to letting Sky, who could manipulate electronic devices, enter a power station, comparing it to a "Houses of Parliament tour with Guy Fawkes". (SJA: Sky)

The Houses of Parliament were still standing in 2164. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

In the Eleven-Day Empire, the Houses of Parliament were used to house the governing body of Faction Paradox. (FP: The Book of the War) The speaker's chair was empty, waiting for the return of Grandfather Paradox. (EDA: Interference)