Houses of Parliament Tours: Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Parliament runs its own audio and guided tours on Saturdays all year and Monday to Saturday during recess, and you can book a trip that goes through the door here too. The fully guided ones put a live guide in both debating chambers with you.

Two guided visits from Walks take a Blue Badge guide into Westminster Hall and both chambers. The Vox City ticket gets you in on a timed entry with an audio handset, and the Amigo listings add entry as a paid option. Everything else sees the building from the street.

The building's own audio tour starts at £31 for an adult and lets one child in free with every full-paying adult, while its guided tour is £34. The cheapest listed trip with entry included is $42, which adds a host at the meeting point and a second audio walk outside.

Yes, and earlier than you would expect. Saturday slots and every recess week sell out, and visits can be cancelled at short notice when the building is needed for its actual job. Book ahead and keep an eye on the free-cancellation window on your booking.

Saturdays throughout the year, and Monday to Saturday whenever the Commons is in recess. In 2026 that means 17 July to 31 August, 16 September to 11 October, and 18 December to 3 January. Outside those windows Saturday is your day.

Allow ninety minutes for the official tours plus twenty more for security. The guided combination trips spend two hours inside the Palace and about an hour and a half in Westminster Abbey, which comes to just under four hours in total.

No. The Elizabeth Tower is sold separately by Parliament itself at £55 for adults and £35 for eleven to seventeen-year-olds, and it involves 334 steps with no lift. Nothing listed here includes the climb, and every walking tour sees the tower from outside.

Yes, on any trip that goes inside. Both the Lords chamber and the Commons chamber sit on the standard route, along with Westminster Hall, St Stephen's Hall and Central Lobby. On sitting days you can also watch a debate from the public gallery for nothing.

Most gather on Parliament Square, at either the Palmerston statue or the Churchill statue. The entry ticket meets at the George V statue on Abingdon Street opposite the Cromwell Green entrance, and the Abbey-led trips meet at the Abbey shop on Dean's Yard.

Airport-style x-ray at the Cromwell Green entrance, with an average wait of up to thirty minutes and closer to forty-five on Monday to Wednesday afternoons. Bags larger than 60 by 40 centimetres are not admitted, so leave luggage at your hotel and bring photo ID.

Only in Westminster Hall, St Stephen's Hall and New Palace Yard. The chambers, Central Lobby and the corridors are camera-free on official and listed tours alike. Put the phone away at the top of the Westminster Hall steps and you will not go wrong.

Most of the route is step-free, with a lift bypassing the steps at either end of St Stephen's Hall and wheelchairs available to borrow. Thirty induction loops and twelve audio devices with British Sign Language and subtitles are kept for visitors. Among the listed trips, the entry ticket, the Amigo combination, the black cab and the Ritz walk all state they are accessible.

Two, if you live in the UK. Your MP can book you a free guided tour up to three months ahead, and you do not have to know them or vote for them. Anyone at all can watch a debate free from the public galleries when a House is sitting.

Yes, and you can book a trip built to do exactly that. It opens at the Abbey while it is quiet, then moves next door for two hours, and the whole thing finishes inside four hours. The two buildings are ninety seconds apart on foot.

Most refund in full up to twenty-four hours before departure. The Churchill War Rooms ticket is non-refundable, and the entry ticket shows two different windows on its own listing, so check the terms on the booking page before you pay.

It is the official name of the building that houses Parliament: about 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases and 4.8 kilometres of passageways. Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin rebuilt it after the fire of 16 October 1834, around the medieval Westminster Hall that survived.

Yes, inscribed in 1987 together with Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church. The three buildings sit within a few hundred metres of each other and were listed as one site. You can walk between all three in under five minutes.

Westminster Hall, begun in 1097 under William II and finished two years later. Its hammerbeam roof was added between 1393 and 1402 by the carpenter Hugh Herland, spanning about eighteen metres without a single supporting column.

Yes. The official audio tour lets one child in free with every full-paying adult and has a version recorded for younger visitors. The Elizabeth Tower climb is the exception: it is for ages eleven and over only.

Photo identification, a small bag and shoes you can stand up in for two hours. If you are taking the audio tour, a charged phone and headphones make the outdoor walk easier. Leave anything larger than 60 by 40 centimetres behind.

The building's own audio tour runs in twelve languages plus British Sign Language. The listed entry ticket covers nine, and the Blue Badge walking tour runs live in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, with one language per departure.

On Wednesdays when the Commons is sitting. UK residents get tickets through their MP or a member of the Lords, and everyone else can queue for whatever space is left once ticket holders are seated. It is the busiest hour of the parliamentary week.

Westminster Underground station on the Jubilee, Circle and District lines is directly across the road. Exit 4 brings you out at Parliament Square for most meeting points, and Exit 2 puts you on Victoria Embankment for the war rooms walk.

There is no formal dress code for a tour. Comfortable shoes matter more than anything else, since you are on your feet for most of a two-hour route with almost nowhere to sit. Bring a layer for the walk between buildings.

Yes, there are visitor facilities inside including a cafe and a shop. The combination trips take their break outside instead, either on Tothill Street or at the Abbey shop, which is worth knowing if you need coffee at a particular time.

None of the private products listed here goes into the building. The black cab tour and the private Abbey visits see it from the outside, so for a private visit inside the Palace the official guided tour is the route to take.

A live guide talks you through both chambers and sets the pace; a handset lets you take your own time and costs less. The guided combinations run to a fixed schedule, while the entry ticket admits wheelchair users and offers nine languages.

No. The Vox City ticket covers the Palace only. The combination trips from Walks and Amigo include both buildings on one booking, and the Abbey is a separate paid entry if you decide to add it later in the day.

Official tours can be withdrawn when the building is needed for parliamentary business, and the listed operators say they will contact you before the start time where they can. The free-cancellation window protects your money in either case.

A Blue Badge walking tour covers Big Ben, the Abbey and Buckingham Palace in one morning and leaves you oriented. Add the entry ticket on a Saturday if you want to get inside the Palace as well, since the two fit comfortably into one day.

On sitting days the route up to the public galleries passes through it, which is free and needs no ticket. On tour days every route starts there, so any visit you book includes it.

Not of the Palace itself. Sunday is the day the shorter Blue Badge walk offers free entry to Westminster Abbey for an organ recital or evensong instead of a guided visit, which is a different experience but a lovely one.

Strictly it belongs to the Great Bell rather than the tower, which was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012. Almost nobody uses the distinction in conversation, and every operator sells the view under the older name.

There are 334, with no lift, and planned pauses built into the climb so you can rest and look around. Ear defenders are handed out because the mechanism and the bells are loud at close range.

No. Tower tickets are sold only by Parliament through its own ticketing site, or at the ticket office at Portcullis House on Victoria Embankment. They are non-refundable and capped at eight per booking.

It is the octagonal room where constituents wait to speak to their MP, which is where the word lobbying comes from. It sits at the crossing point between the Commons and the Lords, under a fan vault, and every route passes through it.

The colours predate the current building and were carried over when Barry and Pugin rebuilt it. Green has marked the Commons since at least the seventeenth century, and red has always been the royal and aristocratic colour of the upper house.

They run in front of the benches on either side, two sword lengths apart, and members are not supposed to cross them during a debate. The convention long outlasted the swords, and guides point them out on every visit.

Up to thirty minutes on average, and about forty-five on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons when the building is busiest. Arriving twenty minutes before your slot is the advice the ticketing site gives, and it is realistic.

No. Anything larger than 60 by 40 centimetres is refused at the entrance and there is no storage on site. Left-luggage offices at the mainline stations are the usual answer if you are visiting between trains.

Yes, and water bowls and dog toilet facilities are provided. The one exception is the Elizabeth Tower climb, where the number of stairs and the noise of the bells make it unsuitable. Everywhere else on the route welcomes them.

Yes. Blind and partially sighted visitors who book the multimedia tour can take an audio-described version with detailed descriptions of the key rooms, and tactile tours are arranged on request through the visitor team.

About ninety seconds on foot across Parliament Square. The Abbey shop on Dean's Yard, where several tours meet, is a couple of minutes further round the building. That proximity is why so many trips sell the two together.

No, they are a separate museum under the Treasury building on King Charles Street, about five minutes' walk away. You can book a trip that includes entry, though none of those go into the Palace of Westminster.

No. The building closes to visitors for the State Opening of Parliament and for the preparations around it. The date moves from year to year, so check before booking if your trip falls in the weeks when a new session might begin.

For most listed trips a phone screen is enough. The Churchill War Rooms entry is the exception, since the operator asks you to download the museum e-ticket in advance and prefers a printed copy.

The Amigo Tours combination caps at ten travellers. The fully guided Walks visit and the Blue Badge walking tours cap at twenty, and the Ritz walking tour can take up to forty, so group size is worth checking before you book.