Buckingham Palace destruction of the Palace of Westminster by fire in 1834, William considered converting the palace into the new Houses of Parliament. Buckingham Palace finally became the principal royal residence in 1837, on the accession of Queen Victoria, who was the first monarch to reside there; her predecessor William IV had died before its completion. While the state rooms were a riot of gilt and colour, the necessities of the new palace were somewhat less luxurious. For one thing, it was reported the chimneys smoked so much that the fires had to be allowed to die down, and consequently the court
Royal Palace of Brussels of the palace and the middle of the facing building on the other side of the park, which is the Palace of the Nation (the Belgian Federal Parliament building). The two facing buildings are said to symbolize Belgium's system of government: a constitutional monarchy. As often mentioned it has a facade 50% longer than that of Buckingham Palace but its floor area of 33,027 m is less than half of Buckingham Palace's floor area (77,000 m) The facade we see today was only built after 1900 on the initiative of King Leopold II. The first nucleus of the present-day building