Passing through the Peers' Lobby and Peers' Corridor, visitors then reach the Central Lobby (a).

Here, MPs can meet their constituents, when requested to do so, for a 'lobby of Parliament' on a particular issue, for example.

It also acts as a general congregation area, and any mail posted at the post office there will have an appropriate Parliamentary frank.

No expense was spared by Pugin here: the statues, the tiled floor, the vaulted ceiling, the glittering chandelier weighing three tons (b) and the mosaics of patron saints of the UK (c) typify the Victorian love of the ornate.