175 years ago today the Houses of Parliament were burnt to the ground. The great fire of 1834 destroyed much of beauty but resulted in Barry’s now world famous Houses of Parliament. To read the story go to: http://www.parliament.uk/about/podcasts/1834fire.cfm
I’m surprised that Lord Norton hadn’t put this in as a quiz question!
I hope it doesn’t burn down any time soon. The debating chambers in the other parliaments across the Commonwealth fail to have the same atmosphere as ours, despite their similar set-ups. This may be due to the language barrier (Canada), the use of desks in the chambers between seats, the relatively fewer number of Members…
The worst thing about their parliaments, though, is that ‘Hear, hear!’, the trade-mark cry of British parliamentarians, has been replaced by applause… a sham. Mind you the Aussies often look like they’re on the verge of a punch-up!
I like the current Houses of Parliament as architecture and I think most people around the world find them pleasant. Yet there is a kind of authenticity or authentic evolution in many sites in Britain that many people have said does not exist in the Barry buildings. So perhaps if a hall or two had been spared and worked in then the final result would have been more impressive.
Like many others I have no clear picture of what the 1833 Parliament really looked like in the context of its times. When the British burnt Washington DC twenty years ealier the buildings were mostly reproduced.
My attention was drawn to the fire earlier this week due to this site’s link to the UK parliaments’s wonderful sets of flickr images.
Are the Thames defences up to the job of protecting the Houses from floods, given the dire warnings on global warming from within?