On this day, Palm Sunday, in 1614, the House of Commons assembled in the church of St Margaret, Westminster, to take Holy Communion together for the first time.
The church was probably originally built in the late eleventh century, and subsequently rebuilt in the fourteenth and again in the late fifteenth to early sixteenth, between 1482-1523, although it has also been much modified subsequently. It became the unofficial “parish” church of the House of Commons after 1614. In 1647, under the Puritans, the wardens were fined for celebrating Christmas!
Among those buried here are William Caxton, whose printing press was nearby, at the sign of the “Red Pale”, in 1491/2; Walter Ralegh, in 1618; John Pym, in 1643; and Wenceslaus Hollar, in 1677. And among those married here, Samuel Pepys, in 1655; and John Milton, in 1656 – not to mention Winston Churchill, in 1908! Sadly, photography is not permitted in the interior of the church, and I have been unable to find any images of it that I can share without infringing copyright.