Westminster hall
Westminster hall, built by William Rufus (1097) as an extension of Edward the Confessor's palace, is the only surviving part of the original palace of Westminster. Used initially for feasts, then early parliaments, it developed into an administrative centre, housing the Courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, Chancery, Exchequer, and Star Chamber. From mid-17th to mid-18th cent., legal activities proceeded alongside stalls selling books and trinkets, rendering it a fashionable haunt. The hall has suffered fires and floods, seen coronation banquets, trials (More, Charles I), and lyings-in-state (Gladstone, Churchill) under its hammer-beam roof, and is now linked to the House of Commons.
A. S. Hargreaves
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Westminster hall
