Centre Block of Houses of Parliament and Peace Tower

The current Centre Block was built between 1916 and 1927 to replace the original building destroyed in a spectacular fire in 1916.

The Centre Block is only one of the magnificent Gothic Revival buildings gracing Parliament Hill, but it is probably the one most quickly recognized by Canadians coast to coast. Home to the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament, the Centre Block is an integral part of our heritage and a symbol of Canada's highly regarded Parliamentary system.

Photo CenterBlock from internet

Peace Tower in front of Centre Block

The Peace Tower (officially the Tower of Victory and Peace) is a focal bell and clock tower, sitting on the central axis of the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament buildings. The present incarnation replaced the 180 ft Victoria Tower after the latter burned down in 1916, along with most of the Centre Block. It today serves as a Canadian icon, and appears on the obverse of both the Canadian fifty-dollar and twenty-dollar bills.

Designed by Jean Omer Marchand and John A. Pearson, the tower is a campanile whose height reaches 302 ft 6 in, over which are arranged a multitude of stone carvings, including approximately 370 gargoyles, grotesques, and friezes, keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the Parliamentary complex. The walls are of Nepean sandstone, and the roof is of reinforced concrete covered with copper.

At its base is a porte-cochere within four equilateral pointed arches, the north of which frames the main entrance of the Centre Block, and the jambs of the south adorned by the supporters of the Royal Arms of Canada. Near the apex, just below the steeply pitched roof, are the tower's 16 ft diameter clock faces, one on each of the four facades. One level below, running around the circumference of the tower's shaft, is an observation deck. Once the city's tallest structure.

Photo PeaceTower from internet

Central Block and Peace Tower of Parliament from the river side.

Photo 74, May 2012

Parliament Hill, Center Block and Peace Tower

Photo 68, May 2012

Peace Tower

Photo 76, May 2012

One of four gargoyles at the corners of the Peace Tower

Cantilevered out at each of the four corners of the tower, at the level of the observation platform, are four 8 ft 4 in long, thick gargoyles made of Stanstead grey granite.

Photo gargoyle, from internet

Peace Tower

Photo 1025, June 2010

Top of Peace Tower, showing some of the gargoyles

Photo 1030, June 2010

Top of Peace Tower, detail

Photo 1030d, June 2010

Center block and Peace tower

Photo 1082, June 2010

Center block and Peace Tower

Photo 1183, June 2010

Peace Tower, Memorial Chamber

The Peace Tower was built not only to stand as an architectural feature and landmark, but also to function as a memorial. It thus houses the Memorial Chamber, a vaulted 24 ft by 24 ft room directly above the porte-cochere, with stained glass windows and various other features illustrating Canada's war record, such as the brass plates made from spent shell casings found on battlefields that were inlaid into the floor, and bore the name of each of Canada's major conflicts during the First World War. The stone walls were originally to have been inscribed with the names of all Canada's servicemen and women who had died during World War I; but, without enough space for all 66,000 names, it was later decided to place Books of Remembrance there instead; these books list all Canadian soldiers, airmen, and seamen who died in service of the Crown — whether that of Britain (before 1931) or that of Canada (after 1931) — or allied countries in foreign wars, including the Nile Expedition and Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War. The displays were later modified to represent a broader overview of Canadian armed conflict, both foreign and domestic, since Confederation in 1867.

Photo 1317, June 2010

Peace Tower, Memorial Chamber

Photo 1319, June 2010

Peace Tower, Memorial Chamber

Photo 1321, June 2010