houses of parliament 360 tour

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Tour the UK Parliament from your armchair

Enjoy a 360-degree look around the historic Palace of Westminster from anywhere in the world

If you’ve ever wanted to take a tour of the Houses of Parliament but have been unable to make the trip to London, we’ve got just the thing for you. The UK Parliament offers virtual tourists the chance to take a 360° spin around the historic interiors of the Palace of Westminster online .

You can see inside the medieval Westminster Hall and explore the iconic Houses of Commons and Lords from the comfort of your armchair anywhere in the world. (Click and hold the screen while watching the video below to look around each room in turn!)

The virtual tour was developed by Aardvark 360 , specialists in creating interactive and immersive imagery. Each individual 360° photo sphere is made up of 13 high-resolution images, taken at a variety of exposures and directions, using a specialist wide-angle lens and panoramic tripod.

The tour is also be available on the Parliament website, accessible either via a computer or smartphone. Switching to the “virtual reality” mode splits the screen of your mobile in two and, if you then place your phone in a cheap Google Cardboard headset , you can enjoy a proper, three-dimensional tour.

The Houses of Parliament have been open to the public for a number of years, with guided tours available throughout the week. However, the virtual tour allows visitors less able to travel to experience what life is like inside the seat of government and learn about its thousand-year history.

“This isn’t a museum, it is a working parliament,” said the Clerk of the House of Commons, David Natzler, when it launched. “We’re already a very open institution but this brings us to a new level of openness.”

“Parliament belongs to the people, so it is only right that everybody should get the chance to experience it,” added John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons. “The virtual tour means that people from all over Britain and, indeed, all over the world can visit Parliament and learn about our democratic institutions.”

This tour is part of the Google Maps world, alongside similar experiences for other well-known landmarks, including Buckingham Palace which can be seen below.

If the 3D online tour has tempted you into paying a visit in person, you can find details of how to book a tour or join a debate on the Houses of Parliament website .

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Visit The Virtual Houses Of Parliament

You can now visit the Houses of Parliament without actually visiting it.

Following in the virtual footsteps of London institutions including 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament has created a 360° online tour, with the help of Aardvark 360.

Among the 10 rooms and corridors you can explore inside the Palace of Westminster are the Commons and Lords Chambers, the Peers' Lobby and Westminster Hall — the oldest surviving part of the building.

Our personal experience: this is one of London's best virtual tours yet. Charles Barry's magnificent vaulted ceilings make this a truly engrossing experience than the more humbly-proportioned Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. Aardvark 360 has also managed to overcome the blank patch on the floor that blights some Google Cardboard experiences — this tour really is all-encompassing.

As you marvel at the renderings of Augustus Pugin 's interior design, you find walls, ceilings, statues and various other objects peppered with nuggets of trivia: learn about everything from the encaustic tiles in the Central Lobby to the Woolsack in the House of Lords.

Says Lord Fowler, Speaker of the House of Lords, "Through this technology, Parliament is now open to anyone every day of the week."

Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow adds "Parliament belongs to the people, so it is only right that everybody should get the chance to experience it."

The idea of the virtual tour is not just to allow people to 'visit' from home, but to be enticed to come and visit the real McCoy. We reckon this is the best way to advertise the riches of one of London's greatest buildings.

(Although we would like to see a virtual tour of Big Ben added at some point.)

The tour is available on here , where you can also view it in 3D through Google Cardboard.

Here's a teaser trailer:

Oh, and because there ain't nothing like the real thing, here's how to get into the real Houses of Parliament for free .

Last Updated 15 March 2017

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The Houses of Parliament: A virtual tour

The story of how you came to power.

Room by fascinating room, in 360 degrees, let’s discover the thousand year old history of how we got the vote. We’ll sky-dive in to London and go in to many parts of the Houses of Parliament building, visit its ornate Gothic rooms, the bustling Members’ lobby, the austere Westminster Hall, feel the heat of the debating chambers and several more.

This virtual tour covers the turbulent history in the birth of British democracy, a constant battle between monarch and parliament with gunpowder plots, a civil war, a royal execution, a fire and world war two bombs. We’ll look at pivotal moments and their impact on us today, from the Magna Carta, the Barons’ Revolt, the Bill of rights, the model parliament and votes for women.

So join us for our latest tour and let’s discover how YOU came to power. Click the Get Tickets link below to be directed to Eventbrite

Click here to book tickets

Tour details:

• 70-90 minutes virtual tour via Zoom
• Multiple dates
• Cost: £10 per screen
• Book your tickets via Eventbrite
• We’ll email you the meeting ID and password on the morning of the tour

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The Houses of Parliament has its own 360-degree virtual tour

The Houses of Parliament may have closed early for Easter amid increasing lockdown restrictions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get up close and personal to the London landmark - even from self-isolation on your sofa. 

Before everything went crazy, the UK’s political HQ created its own 360° virtual tour so you can f ollow in the footsteps of Churchill, Thatcher, Blair and Corbyn and mosey around the House of Commons, the House of Lords and all the spaces in between.

Photograph: Houses of Parliament 360 virtual tour

As well as plenty of OTT Victoriana, the tour includes the interiors of the Commons and the Lords, Westminster Hall, the central lobby and St Stephen’s Hall, with its statues of parliamentarians. There are also information symbols along the way that tell you interesting facts and tidbits about the buildings and the important objects inside them. There’s also a special ‘Women and Parliament’ tour spotlighting important women in parliamentary history, like the first female speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd, and MP for Blackburn Barbara Castle, who played a huge role in creating the Equal Pay Act in 1970. 

The virtual tour is so comprehensive it really gives you a feel of how small and cosy all the grand parliamentary rooms are, and if you zoom in you can see the creases in the green leather benches in the House of Commons and check out all the clocks and gadgets on the Table of the House. 

And if you happen to have a virtual-reality headset knocking about at home you can make the experience even more immersive. 

Find the virtual tour  here . 

Want more? You can do virtual tours of almost every major London museum and gallery .

Check out these  haunting photos of London’s busiest landmarks now they’re completely empty .

• Alexandra Sims

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Royal Quest

360° panoramas of this virtual tour, page 1.

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How to create a virtual 3D tour? Step-by-step instruction

The order is as follows: 1) upload to the site spherical panoramas from which you plan to create a virtual tour; 2) from the list of uploaded panoramas add each panorama to the virtual tour (Add to 3D tour link); 3) open the created virtual tour, edit the panorama order, select the main panorama, set transition points (tunnels).