The Victoria Tower is the square tower at the southern end of the Palace of Westminster in London, facing south and west onto Black Rod's Garden and Old Palace Yard. At Шаблон:Convert, it is slightly taller than the more famous Clock Tower at the north end of the Palace (Шаблон:Convert). It houses the Parliamentary Archives in archive conditions meeting the BS 5454 standard, on 12 floors. All 14 floors of the building were originally linked via a single wrought iron Victorian staircase of 553 steps, of which five floors still survive.
The main entrance at the base of the tower is the Sovereign's Entrance, through which the Monarch passes at the State Opening of Parliament. On top of the Victoria Tower is an iron flagstaff, from which the Union Flag is flown when Parliament is in session (unless the Sovereign is present in the Palace, when it is replaced by the Royal Standard).
The Victoria Tower was purpose-built as a 'fireproof repository for books and documents' as required by the competition to rebuild the Palace of Westminster after the fire of 16 October, 1834, which had destroyed it and almost all of the records of the House of Commons. The records of the House of Lords survived the conflagration because they were, at the time, stored in the Jewel Tower, which was at a distance from the main building, and still stands across the road from the Victoria Tower.
Charles Barry's design for the new Palace of Westminster featured a tower over the Sovereign’s Entrance, 12 floors of which incorporated record storage. Augustus Pugin produced most of the architectural designs and elevations for the project and also the interior design. The first stone of the Tower was laid by Queen Victoria on 22 December, 1843, and it was completed in 1860.
The tower incorporates a cast-iron framework which, rather than the visible stonework, provides the main strength supporting the structure.
The tower was originally named "The King's Tower" because the fire of 1834 which destroyed the old Palace of Westminster occurred during the reign of King William IV.
When the wrought iron flagstaff was erected in 1855, the Tower became the tallest square tower in the world, at Шаблон:Convert high to the base of the flagstaff, and a further Шаблон:Convert to the top of the Crown at its summit.
The Parliamentary Archives underwent a complete reconstruction between 1948 and 1963 to provide 12 floors of air-conditioned document storage, and again between 2000 and 2004 to bring it up to contemporary archive storage standards.
