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Free into the oldest building in Parliament, and into the Commons and the Lords when they sit.
HistoryPermanentFree
In Houses of Parliament & Big Ben.
Whenever either House is sitting, anyone may walk in and watch, and it costs nothing. UK residents and overseas visitors alike join the public queue outside the Cromwell Green entrance on the Parliament Square side; you are searched, and then you come up into Westminster Hall, which is the reason to go even if the debate turns out to be about statutory instruments. It was begun in 1097 for William Rufus, the largest hall in Europe when it was new, and the oak hammerbeam roof Richard II commissioned in the 1390s is still up there, unsupported by a single column. William Wallace, Thomas More, Guy Fawkes and Charles I were all tried on this floor, and monarchs and Churchill have lain in state on it. The stairs at the far end lead up to the galleries.
The Commons sits Monday from 14:30, Tuesday and Wednesday from 11:30, Thursday from 09:30 and on sitting Fridays from 09:30, with the Lords from 14:30 on Mondays and Tuesdays, 15:00 on Wednesdays and 11:00 on Thursdays; finishing times move with the business. A wait of one or two hours is normal for the Commons and usually shorter for the Lords, which has its own queue at the same entrance and issues no tickets. The exception is Question Time, and in the Commons that means Prime Minister's Questions on a Wednesday: free tickets go to UK residents who ask their own MP or a Lord for one, and everybody else queues for whatever seats are left over, which is often none. What closes during a parliamentary recess is the galleries, because with neither House sitting there is nothing to watch. The building does not close: the recesses are when the Palace's paid tours run, Westminster Hall included. Check the parliamentary calendar before setting off.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.