Sadly, while this was the House of Commons for centuries (the current site is barely 150 years old - at the time of great events such as the refusal of the Speaker to divulge the name of the MPs that Charles I had come to arrest, it was either on a reclaimed garden - or actually in the Thames!) - it is now treated by many visitors merely as a corridor or a waiting room. The pictures are worth a close look.
I hadn't noticed - despite regular visits - then years working at Westminster - the detail in the picture of Vikings raiding - until a friend told me the story of some 20th century 'graffiti'
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhedC3ys8kbJxlHS-ckG6u46V6PHME2eGRkJXNmJbaARqCcOOCN0XjYEafXCbi1VdD5RBEiVIBH2B5G6XI92C6B1Y8n2wUGTfTKlh-VG-X7aeXZ9RVABlkhfOEq2yDDTN87qJffVJBfc7A/s320/IMG_0829.jpg)
On the shield of one to the Vikings a Nazi swastika had been added. Hitler and his aggressive Nazi party were seen as a modern equivalent to the destructive Vikings. (Historical research has progressed since that date - and the Vikings are rightly no longer seen as evil as many thought in the early part of the last century.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-hayb5IAxtcsRBUHN-zV-lzU7Lv_EDrl1nY0B2vBvvinn6oPw08TU-690PY2Okf5pVgbDhADH7937grCHVrzsUrfJsG45kT9hlDD5CcirnxK9TcJSiUuYvpgLNTKgjpx_QB3cPRgPDE/s320/IMG_0831.jpg)
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