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Parliament Square was designed
to provide a more open aspect for the new Houses of Parliament
built in 1870. It was laid out in 1868 on site of a
notorious slum.
The square is dotted with statues
of famous statesmen, the most notable being Winston Churchill.
A statue of Abraham Lincoln sits in front of the Middlesex
Guildhall , completed in 1913.
Other buildings around the square
include Westminster Central Hall, Westminster Abbey and St
Margaret's Westminster.
Opposite the Houses
of Parliament, across Bridge Street towards Westminster
Bridge, stands the rather forbidding Portculis House, completed
in 2001. This houses government offices, as well as
the ultra-modern, Westminster Underground Station.
Today, the square, which became
Britain's first official roundabout in 1926, is normally a
traffic jam, although this doesn't stop its use by the media
for interviewing Members of Parliament.
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Westminster