Historically, the House of Assembly in British crown colonies superseded the (usually unelected) Legislative Council as the colonial legislature, as the colony gained more internal self-government, in some instances becoming the lower house. In Gibraltar, the unicameral legislature is called the House of Assembly, while in Bermuda, it forms the lower house.
Barbados has the oldest 'House of Assembly' in the Commonwealth.
In South Africa, the House of Assembly, known in Afrikaans as the Volksraad, was the lower house of the whites-only parliament from 1981, when the Senate was abolished. Following a new Constitution in 1984, it became one of three Houses of the tricameral Parliament. Following the end of apartheid and the introduction of a new Constitution in 1994, it was replaced by a National Assembly.
In Zimbabwe, the House of Assembly has been the sole parliamentary chamber since the abolition of the country's Senate in 1990.