Virtual St Stephens

We hope you're enjoying the Jubilee weekend! The 1887 and 2012 jubilees invovled royal visits to Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall, respectively. However, this illustration of George III in Westminster Hall, produced for his Golden Jubilee in 1809, is fanciful!

#OTD in 1796 James Wyatt was appointed Surveyor-General of the King's Works. Four years later he began an ambitious, but controversial remodelling of the Palace of Westminster, including alterations to St. Stephen's Chapel and a major rebuild of the #SpeakersHouse.

Speaker Charles Abbot is an important figure in the history of St. Stephen's, as he commissioned James Wyatt's major rebuild of the #SpeakersHouse in 1802. Our latest blog post provides a brief introduction to his career. tinyurl.com/2p9a7a62

Today, the former undercroft of St. Stephen's Chapel is a magnificent space. But in the 1840s, it became embroiled in a dispute about "offensive emanations"! Elizabeth Hallam Smith's blog post sheds new light on the Victorian reconstruction of the Palace: tinyurl.com/2p8twv6j

Happy Monday everyone!😄 We've got some great news to start your week: our new series of blog posts starts TOMORROW with a guest post from Elizabeth Hallam Smith. Don't miss it! (Picture from Yale Centre for British Art)

The passageway lies in the wall between Westminster Hall and St Stephen's cloister. A lost entryway to Parliament, between 1661-1807 it was the main route from the Hall to the House of Commons. Hear more about its exciting discovery here youtube.com/watch?v=uDB8MfKL…

Nowadays, it would be unthinkable for the Speaker of the House of Commons to become Prime Minister. Yet in 1801, that's exactly what happened! Our latest blog introduces the career of Henry Addington, and explains how he became the first Speaker to occupy the #SpeakersHouse.

Hungry? How about a gallon of custard for lunch? Our latest post invites you to dine with the Exchequer at the Palace of Westminster in the sixteenth century. Find out what's on the menu and the place of meals in the administrative routine tinyurl.com/4p622m8t

We've seen Parliament adapt its proceedings, from masks to online voting, over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. But how did Parliament cope with infectious disease in the 16th century? Find out about 'government bubbles' in our latest blog post tinyurl.com/crktu5mp

The Palace of Westminster is famous for its Gothic architecture, but things could have been very different. In our latest blog post, @MTremellen explores the decades-long struggle between advocates of Classical and Gothic styles at Westminster. tinyurl.com/y2ozhoon