What Are Parliament Hinges?

Author: Carl Benson

Carl is the founder of Suffolk Latch Company, with a background in engineering and over 20 years’ experience in home hardware. He works closely with suppliers and designers alike to develop quality ironmongery that stands the test of time. Read my full bio.

If you are fitting French doors, or have doors that need to open out to 180 degrees, you may have come across a type of door hinge called a parliament hinge.

Watch our video or read on to learn why you might need this style of hinge, how to measure correctly, and what security considerations to keep in mind.

Why Use Parliament Hinges?

Parliament hinges, also known as wide-throw hinges, have a distinctive double-leaf design with cut-out sections at the top and bottom.

This cut-out allows the door to bypass a deep reveal, thick architrave or wide skirting board. It also allows the door to open out to 180 degrees and sit flat against the wall.

This makes parliament hinges particularly useful for French doors, restoration projects and doors where standard butt hinges would not provide enough clearance.

Features of Parliament Hinges

• Allow doors to open to 180 degrees.
• Ideal for outward-opening French doors.
• Useful when a door needs to clear a deep reveal, thick architrave or skirting board.
• Often used for door restoration projects.
• Traditional hinge design.

How to Measure for Parliament Hinges

When choosing parliament hinges, it is important to make sure the hinge provides enough clearance over the obstruction, such as architrave, stonework or a deep door reveal.

The key measurement is the projection. This is the total width of the cut-out space in the hinge, as shown in the diagram below. In this example, the projection is 48mm.

Security Advice for Parliament Hinges

Some home insurance companies are cautious about parliament hinges because the hinge projects away from the door frame. This can make the hinge more exposed than a standard butt hinge.

For additional security, consider fitting security bolts to the frame. These help prevent the door from being removed if the hinge is attacked from the outside.

We stock solid brass parliament hinges from our Old English Collection. View our solid brass parliament hinges for further details.

You may also find our guide on how to fit a door knob with concealed fixings useful.