The Courts of Law only moved out in the s. Long unfit for purpose, the opportunity to create a new palace came in , when a fire destroyed most of the old structure. The winner of the competition to rebuild was Sir Charles Barry who worked alongside Augustus Pugin to create today's Perpendicular Gothic building, containing 1, rooms around two courtyards.
It covers eight acres with an impressive m river frontage. Standing proud of the main building is the clock tower, home of the bell affectionately known as Big Ben. Sadly, neither Barry nor Pugin lived to see the New Palace finished. In fact bombs and other acts of violence have played a prominent role in Westminster's history.
In , Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated there. A Fenian bomb in severely damaged the Common Chamber and seriously injured three. During the Blitz , the Palace was hit no less than 14 times. It was found shortly after the Restoration in the possession of an old lady in Berkshire, and its damning autographs formed the ground of the prosecution of the regicides. It is framed and glazed, and preserved here as a most curious and valuable document.
It was lost for a time in the confusion consequent on the burning of the House of Lords in , but was again found and replaced. It seems as if the element of fire was averse to blotting out the memory of these wicked knaves.
The old building used by the House of Commons for their sittings occupied, as nearly as possible, the site of the present, and, as already stated, was originally the chapel of the ancient palace. Being a free chapel, it was included in the statute of 1st Edward VI.
The building was of an oblong shape, about ninety feet in length by thirty in width, and had externally at each corner an octagonal tower.
It was lighted by five windows on each side, and its walls were supported by substantial buttresses between each window on the outside. It consisted of two storeys, the upper one being used as the House of Commons. The lower storey, which was level with the pavement of the street, was formerly known as the Chapel of St.
Mary in the Vaults; but part of it was latterly enclosed to contain a stove for warming the chamber above, and another portion served as the Speaker's state dining-room. The whole front, next to the street, was rebuilt in the Gothic style and cased with stucco at the beginning of the present century.
The building is described by Mr. Allen in his "History of London" as "a confused and illformed assemblage of towers, turrets, and pinnacles, jumbled together without taste or judgment; rendered the more offensive from the proximity of the Abbey and the Hall, and certainly not improved by the poverty-struck cloister subsequently appended to its basement.
In what manner the House of Commons was at first fitted up nothing definite is known. In the seal for the Court of King's Bench at Westminster , that for the Common Pleas for the county palatine of Lancaster , the Parliament seal , and the Dunbar medal , the walls are represented as having only a plain wainscoting. However, it appears about the year they were covered with tapestry hangings, probably to conceal this wainscoting, for they are so given in the perspective view of the House of Commons, on the back of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth , and in this manner they continued to be decorated down to the time of Queen Anne, in whose reign Sir Christopher Wren was employed to repair the building, and to fit the interior with galleries.
The house in itself had nothing very striking to recommend it; convenience, not ornament, appears to have been the principal object of those who enlarged this ancient chapel and applied it to the use of the Legislature. The galleries, which ran along the sides and west end, for the accommodation of members and strangers, were supported by slender iron pillars, crowned with gilt Corinthian capitals, and the walls were wainscoted to the ceiling.
The Speaker's chair stood at some distance from the wall; it was highly ornamented with gilding, and bore the royal arms above. Before the chair was a table at which sat the Clerks of the Parliament.
In the centre of the room, between the table and the bar, was a capacious area. The seats for the members occupied each side and both ends of the room, with the exception of the passages. There were five rows of seats, rising in gradation above each other, with short backs, and green morocco cushions.
The usual entrance for members of Parliament to the old House of Commons, was, as at the present time, through Westminster Hall. The Speaker's House adjoined St.
Stephen's Chapel, and there, in the days of Mr. Manners Sutton, Theodore Hook, as a clever and witty Tory writer, had often been agreeably entertained. Paying his last visit to the Speaker's House after the fire of , he was received, it seems, in an apartment which had escaped, but exhibited sad marks of the surrounding devastation.
It was the break-up of many kind and grateful associations. In his diary-book, he says, "I turned after leaving them and kissed the threshold. I shall be there no more. Manners Sutton was superseded by Mr. Abercromby as Speaker. On the south side of St. Stephen's Chapel were Cotton's Gardens, so called because they formed part of the residence of Sir Robert Cotton, the founder of the Cottonian Library, which forms such a valuable part of the British Museum.
They are now partly covered over by the new House of Lords and the Peers' Court. Stephen's Chapel, now the Parliament House" that is, the present St.
Stephen's Hall , "is the house belonging to the ancient and noble family of the Cottons, wherein is kept a most inestimable library of manuscript volumes found both at home and abroad. On the side of Cotton's Gardens there was formerly an ancient chapel dedicated to "Our Lady de la Pieu;" though the name is variously spelt, in all probability it is a corruption of les puits , "the wells. Such, at all events, was the case as lately as , when, as we learn from that matter-of-fact antiquary, Mr.
Smith, "the key was held by Mr. Tyrwhitt, whose servants regularly opened and closed the gates morning and night. Standing parallel with the river, on the eastern side of New Palace Yard, was the ancient council chamber of the royal palace, where the king sat in extraordinary causes. It was for some time used as the Lottery Office, and had been for centuries known as the "Star Chamber. After the sittings, the Lords dined in the inner Star Chamber at the public expense.
The mode of the proceedings was twofold: one ore tenus , or by the mouth; the other, by bill and answer. The proceeding ore tenus , usually adopted in political cases, originated in "soden reporte," which Mr.
The person accused or suspected was immediately apprehended, and privately examined. Next page. Recent searches:. Create a new lightbox Save. Create a lightbox Your Lightboxes will appear here when you have created some. Save to lightbox. The Palace of Westminster was the monarch's principal residence in the late Medieval period. After all British Parliaments have met at the Palace. Christopher Wren in the late 17th century completely redesigned the interior.
In fire broke out and most of the buildings in the palace complex were destroyed. The painting was discovered in a South African antique shop after going missing in Oil on canvas, c, by Peter Tillemans. From London Pictures, published The New Palace of Westminster, City of Westminster, London, England, seen here after its reconstruction following the fire of which virtually destroyed the old palace. Its name is derived from the neighbouring Westminster Abbey and refers to the Old Palace, however the medieval building complex was destroyed by fire in Here, Hutchinson was not just repeating a commonplace about the inferiority of the palace of Westminster.
For the Gothic style, and the inconvenience of having a cramped and fetid Commons chamber, underlined a particularly British form of understatement, one which implicitly elevated the substance of a limited monarchical system above the superficiality of grandeur and fine style. Not least because of the problems of overcrowding, poor acoustics and unsatisfactory ventilation, there were again sustained calls for a rebuilding scheme in the s. Once more, little progress was made, partly no doubt owing to limited financial resources, but also because — at a time of war against revolutionary France — Gothic remained the patriotic idiom.
Even as late as the mids, the architect John Soane was forced by a parliamentary committee to modify the frontage of his law courts, which were erected alongside Westminster Hall, because it was too classical in appearance. In a sense, the chaotic medievalism of the old palace of Westminster reflected the labyrinthine complexity and inconsistency of the unreformed electoral system.
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