When Parliament Sits: Tours, Debates and the 2026 Calendar
This building's opening hours are a function of its work. When the Commons is sitting you can watch a debate but not tour the chambers; when it rises, weekday tours open up. The calendar below is the difference between a visit and a wasted morning.
The two patterns, and which one your date falls in
Tours of the Palace run on Saturdays throughout the year. During parliamentary recess, when the chambers are empty, they run Monday to Saturday. Nothing runs on Sundays. If your only free day is a weekday, you need a recess week, and there are six of them in 2026.
Recess dates for 2026
These are the House of Commons recess windows as published by Parliament. Weekday tours run inside them; outside them, Saturday is your day. Dates occasionally move when the parliamentary timetable changes, so confirm close to your visit.
| Recess | Dates | Tours run | Chambers |
|---|---|---|---|
| February recess 2026 | 2026-02-13 to 2026-02-22 | Monday to Saturday | Chambers empty |
| Easter recess 2026 | 2026-03-27 to 2026-04-12 | Monday to Saturday | Chambers empty |
| Whitsun recess 2026 | 2026-05-22 to 2026-05-31 | Monday to Saturday | Chambers empty |
| Summer recess 2026 | 2026-07-17 to 2026-08-31 | Monday to Saturday | Chambers empty |
| Conference recess 2026 | 2026-09-16 to 2026-10-11 | Monday to Saturday | Chambers empty |
| Christmas recess 2026 | 2026-12-18 to 2027-01-03 | Monday to Saturday | Chambers empty |
Published by UK Parliament and read from its own recess-dates feed in August 2026. The Christmas recess runs into 3 January 2027.
Put plainly: the widest window of the year is 17 July 2026 to 31 August 2026, which is six full weeks of weekday tours. The next is 16 September 2026 to 11 October 2026. After that you wait until 18 December 2026.
What you can watch when the House is sitting
Everything the tours cannot show you. Both public galleries are free and open to anybody, UK resident or not, whenever the relevant House is sitting — Monday to Thursday and on sitting Fridays. You go through the same security and sit above the chamber. The Lords is far easier to get into than the Commons and just as interesting to see in use.
Prime Minister's Questions, Wednesdays. The busiest half
hour of the parliamentary week. UK residents can request tickets through their own MP or a member
of the Lords; everyone else queues for the seats left over. If you want the room rather than the
argument, come on a Tuesday instead and walk straight in —
the House of Commons page explains what you
will be looking at.
Elizabeth Tower tickets and when they appear
Elizabeth Tower tours are released in batches by Parliament and sell out quickly, so the dates rather than the price are the constraint. Tickets for tours from 1 August 2026 are £55 for adults and £35 for eleven to seventeen-year-olds. Book the tower first and build the rest of your day around the slot you are given, because it is the least flexible thing in Westminster.
What closes the building, and where to check before you travel
The summer recess ended on 31 August 2026, which closed the longest run of weekday tours in the year. The State Opening of Parliament closes the building to visitors entirely, along with the preparations around it, and its date moves from session to session. Tours can also be withdrawn at short notice when the Palace is needed for parliamentary business, which is why the free cancellation window on a booking is worth reading.
Parliament publishes its own recess dates and sitting calendar, and they are the authority if anything here disagrees: House of Commons recess dates and non-sitting periods. Tickets for the building's own tours are at the UK Parliament ticket office.
Once you have a date, London Parliament guided tours compares every way in, and visitor information covers the entrance and the security queue.
Trips that run on these dates
Saturday departures all year, and weekday departures through the recess windows above. All three go through the door.
