Victoria Tower Gardens

This riverside park tucked beside the House of Lords holds two memorials that tell the story of change forced on Parliament from outside. The statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the militant suffragettes, was unveiled in 1930 by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. She died in 1928, a month before all adult women could finally vote. A few steps away, the Gothic Buxton Memorial marks the abolition of slavery and the campaigning MP Thomas Fowell Buxton; it was first installed on the edge of Parliament Square in 1865 and moved here in 1957. Rodin's Burghers of Calais stands nearby too. It is a free, quiet place to sit after a Parliament tour, with a side view of the Victoria Tower.