Twelve Statues and Four Institutions Around One Green
Stand on the pavement at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster and turn a slow circle. To the east, the legislature in the Houses of Parliament; to the north, the governmental executive offices along Whitehall; to the west, the judiciary in the Supreme Court at the Middlesex Guildhall; to the south, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's. Between them lies Parliament Square itself: a large open green area laid out in the 19th century, with trees to its west and twelve statues of statesmen and other notable individuals arranged around it. Few patches of ground in London put the machinery of the state so tightly within a single view, and you can take it all in on foot in a matter of minutes.
Walk the Statues, Then Look Up at the Flags
The square's real occupation is a slow clockwise circuit of its monuments, beginning as the sources order them with Winston Churchill's statue, which faces Parliament. Work your way around and you meet bronze figures from across British, Commonwealth and Anglosphere political life, among them Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, Viscount Palmerston, Edward Stanley (Earl of Derby), Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, David Lloyd George, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The Millicent Fawcett statue honours the suffragist leader, its base bearing portraits of the women and men who advanced women's rights. The statues are set on pedestals of differing stone — pink granite, Welsh slate, South African grey granite, low Portland stone — so the circuit doubles as a short lesson in sculptural fashion.
- Pause at Churchill's bronze, which looks directly across to the Palace of Westminster.
- Find Gandhi and Mandela, both set forward of the western monuments on low bases.
- Read the base of the Fawcett statue for its portraits of campaigners.
- Look up: the square sometimes displays all of the British flags — the United Kingdom, its four countries, the county flags, the Crown Dependencies and the heraldic shields of the British Overseas Territories — alongside the flags of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Remember, too, that this is not a passive place. The east side, opposite one of the main entrances to the Palace of Westminster, has historically been a common site of protest against government action or inaction — from Brian Haw's long-running peace campaign to the Democracy Village camp. You may arrive to find the green occupied by a demonstration rather than tourists, which is part of what the square is for.
How to Make the Most of Your Visit
Treat Parliament Square as a place to stand and orient yourself rather than to tick off. The garden is in the care of the Greater London Authority, which handles its lighting, cleansing, watering, paving and maintenance, so the green and its paths are kept in order for visitors. Give yourself time to walk the full ring of statues and then to read the buildings around you — the Supreme Court in the Middlesex Guildhall, the government offices on Great George Street serving HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs, and Portcullis House. The square is a junction as much as a destination, with roads branching off toward Millbank, Victoria Street, Birdcage Walk, Whitehall and Westminster Bridge, so it works best as the hinge of a longer walk through Westminster. If you want the square at its most legible, come when the light is flat and the pavements are quiet, and keep an eye on the flag displays, which change and are worth a second look.
What Else Is Close By
You are already at the heart of Westminster, so the day extends naturally in several directions. Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster, including the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben, are immediately beside you, and the Abbey keeps a restaurant and café. Cross Westminster Bridge and the London Eye stands on the South Bank with its views over the Thames. Head west and you reach Buckingham Palace, the King's London residence, and St James's Park beyond it. Further afield but easy to reach are the Tower of London by Tower Hill, Kensington Palace, Madame Tussauds and, for football, Emirates Stadium.
Parliament Square rewards the traveller who slows down at the exact point where London's legislature, government, courts and church all face one another across a green. Start with a map of Westminster, pick your hour, and let the square be the first stop on a walk that takes in the Abbey, the river and the palaces beyond.