West of the West End?: Westminster

On Tuesday, our first full day in London, we travelled to Westminster, just a short tube ride away from our hotel. The West End is to the west of central London, obviously, the old "mile square" walled city that now houses the nation's (and one of the world's major) financial districts. (The East End is to the, uh, east.) But the West End was also the area towards (and eventually interfilling the area between London and) Westminster.

Ever since Edward the Confessor, as Dr. Peter Catterall noted, who spent much time and money on refounding and expanding Westminster Abbey, Westminster has been associated with England's and then Britain's governmental center. The Court was at Whitehall Palace (which burned in 1698, leaving only the Banquetting Hall designed by Inigo Jones in the early 17th century), and at St. James's Palace, and, more recently, at Buckingham Palace. The House of Lords and the House of Commons were also at the Palace of Westminster, and the houses of Parliament, also burnt in 1834, so the new Parliament dates from the mid-19th century. (We had a very interesting discussion with a Tory whip and toured the buildings, but, of course, were unable to photograph inside.) From the late 17th or early 18th century, the head of the political party with the most MPs was, more or less, heading the government. In the 1720s and 1730s, that leader of the Whigs was Sir Robert Walpole, and he became known, derisively at first, as the Prime Minister. We visited his Norfolk home, Houghton Hall, which he rebuilt at great expense. But he probably spent more time at his home in Westminster, No. 10 Downing Street. That address has become the home of all Prime Ministers, and it is the non-descript grey building in this photograph (upper right, taken as we walked down Whitehall). One used to be able to walk through Downing Street but security tightened when there was an IRA mortar or missle attack on the building a few decades ago. Whitehall is also the home of the various governmental adminsitration buildings: Cabinet Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence.

But Whitehall and Westminster is also home to many quasi-governmental bodies: offices of political parties, political journalists' offices, offices of solicitors who draft parliamentary legislation, institutes and associations which lobby for particular Acts (or for government to act).
Here is our intrepid group about to turn down Great Peter Street (which I realized by enlarging the photograph). The Institute of Economic Affairs, the Royal Academy of Engineers: these are both on Great Peter Street in Westminster just south of Westminster Abbey, and the work of these various lobbying associations are very important for the working of British government today. If one solely examines government from the perspective of Parliament, one doesn't realize its scope.