Westminster Hall witnesses another moment in more than 900 years of history

The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II will be moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall – the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament – on Wednesday.

Here are some key details about the historic hall:

The Hall is more than 900 years old, with construction having begun in 1097 under King William II – the son of William the Conqueror.

The first recorded coronation feast for a king took place in the Hall in 1189, for King Richard I, the Lionheart.

Henry VIII’s coronation banquet took place in the Hall in 1509 – as did the banquet of his ill-fated second wife Anne Boleyn in 1533, and their daughter Queen Elizabeth I in 1559.

Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the Gunpower Plot conspirators, was tried in the Hall in 1606. So was King Charles I in 1649, after he lost the English Civil war and was executed.

Queen Elizabeth’s mother and father both lay in state in Westminster Hall before her: King George VI in 1952, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in in 2002. So did her grandfather George V in 1936 and her great-grandfather Edward VII in 1910 – the first royal lying-in-state.

Winston Churchill lay in state in Westminster Hall after his death in 1965.

Nelson Mandela delivered an address in the Hall as President of South Africa in 1996.