Parliament Square

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Lore & Background

Parliament Square was laid out in 1868 in order to open up the space around the Palace of Westminster and improve traffic flow. A substantial amount of property was cleared from the site, and the architect responsible was Sir Charles Barry. The square originally included the Buxton Memorial Fountain, which was removed in 1949 and relocated to nearby Victoria Tower Gardens in 1957. The square also featured some of London's earliest traffic signals. In 1949, a redesign of the Parliament Square area was prepared by the architect George Grey Wornum (1888–1957). Plans to redesign the square predated the Second World War, with the Ministry of Transport proposing that a larger central island was necessary to allow traffic more room in Great George Street. Following the war, the London County Council submitted a revised plan that was approved by the Ministry of Transport and enacted by Parliament through the Parliament Square (Improvements) Act 1949. The Act was required due to the mixed ownership of the land. The redesign included new roads, pavements, and landscaping works in the area. As Great George Street was widened and an existing road realigned, the Buxton Memorial Fountain had to be removed. Because Victorian architecture was unpopular at the time, some Members of Parliament argued that it should not be re-erected; at least one described it as having 'no artistic merit whatever.' The Act ultimately permitted its removal but required its reinstatement. The central garden of the square was transferred from the Parliamentary Estate to the control of the Greater London Authority under the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

In Their Own Story

On May Day 2000 the square was transformed into a giant allotment by a Reclaim the Streets guerrilla gardening action. Brian Haw staged a continual protest there for several years, campaigning against British and American action in Iraq. Starting on 2 June 2001, Haw left his post only once, on 10 May 2004 – and then because he had been arrested on the charge of failing to leave the area during a security alert – and returned the following day when he was released. The alleged disruption caused by Haw's protest led Parliament to insert a clause into the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) making it illegal to protest in Parliament Square (or, indeed, in a large area reaching roughly half a mile in all directions) without first obtaining the permission of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The act was initially unsuccessful in accomplishing its goals: Brian Haw was held to be exempt from needing authorisation in a High Court ruling, as his protest had started before the act came into effect (though any new protests would be covered); Haw remained in Parliament Square. Later, the Court of Appeal overturned this ruling, forcing Haw to apply for police authorisation to continue his protest. The provisions of that act relating to Parliament Square were repealed by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. The Parliament Square Peace Campaign was a peace campaign started by Brian Haw in 2001 and carried on by Barbara Tucker until 2013. In May 2010, a peace camp known as Democracy Village was set up on the square to protest (initially) against the British government's involvement in invasions in the Middle East, which became an eclectic movement encompassing left-wing causes and anti-globalisation protests. The Mayor of London Boris Johnson appealed to the courts to have them removed and, after demonstrators lost an appeal in July 2010, Lord Neuberger ruled that the protesters camping on the square should be evicted. The final tents were removed in January 2012. On 9 August 2025, a large demonstration in support of Palestine Action was held at Parliament Square. When Big Ben chimed 1 p.m. during the protest, large numbers of demonstrators revealed signs which read 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action', leading to the arrest of 532 people—the largest made by the Metropolitan Police on a single day in the previous 10 years.

Reader's Guide

Buildings looking upon the square include the churches Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's, Westminster, the Middlesex Guildhall which is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Government Offices Great George Street serving HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs, and Portcullis House. Roads that branch off the Parliament Square are St Margaret Street (towards Millbank), Broad Sanctuary (towards Victoria Street), Great George Street (towards Birdcage Walk), Parliament Street (leading into Whitehall) and Bridge Street (leading onto Westminster Bridge). The square is home to twelve statues of British, Commonwealth, and Anglosphere political figures. They are listed here in anti-clockwise order, beginning with Winston Churchill's statue, which faces Parliament. Parliament Square sometimes features all of the British flags, the flags of the United Kingdom, its four countries, the county flags and the three flags of the Crown Dependencies and the sixteen heraldic shields of the British Overseas Territories. Alongside all of the British flags, Parliament Square also has all of the 56 flags of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Did You Know?

• Parliament Square was laid out in 1868 by architect Sir Charles Barry to open up space around the Palace of Westminster and improve traffic flow.
• The square originally included the Buxton Memorial Fountain, which was removed in 1949 and relocated to Victoria Tower Gardens in 1957.
• Brian Haw's protest in Parliament Square started on 2 June 2001 and he left his post only once, on 10 May 2004, when he was arrested for failing to leave during a security alert.
• On 9 August 2025, a demonstration led to the arrest of 532 people—the largest single-day arrest by the Metropolitan Police in the previous 10 years.
• The square features all 56 flags of the Commonwealth of Nations alongside British flags, county flags, and the flags of the Crown Dependencies.