Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0259Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of the British House of Parliamanet as seen across the Thames River. Abover the image "T302 (Star)" is printed, below the image "W25414T Houses of Parliament and Towers of West-minster Abbey, W. across Thames, london, England." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted. H. C. White Co. Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
W25414
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT AND TOWERS OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY, LONDON
The legislative halls of an empire upon which the sun never sets rise impressively before us. Extending 940 feet along the Thames, the Houses of Parliament, comprising the House of Lords and the House of Commons, are of surpassing beauty and size, covering nearly eight acres. These buildings contain eleven courts, 100 staircases and 1,100 apartments. They were begun in 1840 and finished in 1850, at a total cost little short of $15,000,000. The government officials, secretaries and employes frequenting the buidings make up a great army in addition to the acutal members of the two Houses, and this enormous pile, vast as it is, proivides no more than appropriate housing for the conduct of the national councils.
On the left, the Victoria Tower, seventy feet square, uplifts its pinnacles to an altitude of 340 feet. The spire seen in the center of the building is known as the Middle Tower. The Clock Tower in the distance on the right has a height of 318 feet. Its four dials are eeach twenty-three feet in diameter, their circumference being circled every hour by minute hands twelve feet in length. This is the tower in which "Big Ben" is hung, a ponderous bell weighing thirteen tons, whose deep-toned voice can be heard eight miles away.
The twin towers that we see beyond the Victoria Tower, at the extreme left, are those of Westminster Abbey. To the extreme right, beyond the Houses of Parliament, the Victoria Embankment begins, and there also is located the new "Scotland Yatd," London's famous police headquarters.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection