On October 16, 1834, a fire destroyed almost all of the old Palace of Westminster. The only parts to survive were the 11th century Westminster Hall, the ground-floor crypt of St Stephen’s chapel, both storeys of the 16th century St Stephen’s cloister and the Jewel Tower.

In medieval times, the Palace had been the main residence of the Kings of England, until it was devastated by an earlier fire in 1512. Parliament – being originally an outgrowth of the royal court – met here too, but the Commons often couldn’t be accommodated within the Palace, in which case it had to meet in the chapter house or the refectory at Westminster Abbey.

It only gained a permanent home with the accession of Henry VIII’s son, Edward VI, in 1547. He gave over St Stephen’s Chapel to the House of Commons following the abolition of private chapels. This was the site the Commons occupied until the 1834 fire.

Westminster Hall
©TopFoto.co.uk/Fotomas

Westminster Hall

The most ancient construction in the Houses of Parliament, the Great Hall celebrated its 900th anniversary in 1999. It was built for William Rufus (son of William the Conqueror) as a site for banqueting and entertaining. The first parliamentary assemblies of nobles and bishops, early prototypes of the House of Lords, met here, and it was also the arena for what could be called the first elected parliament in 1265.

The famous hammerbeam roof, one of the wonders of medieval architecture, designed by Hugh Herland, was added during the reign of Richard II in the 1390s, replacing the original wooden pillars. The Hall was a place of commerce, with stalls selling legal paraphernalia – wigs, gowns, etc. – and also the setting for State trials, such as those of Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More, the Gunpowder Plot conspirators and Charles I.

St Stephen’s Chapel

The King’s domestic apartments were clustered around the Great Hall, and to these was later added the private chapel of St Stephen, rebuilt during the reign of Edward I in the 13th century. This was a two-tier place of worship, with the King and members of his family attending the upper chapel on the first floor, and the courtiers the ground-floor chapel where the crypt was. Only the lower level survived the 19th-century fire.

Jewel Tower

Built by Edward III in around 1365 as a wardrobe for his jewellery and regalia, the Jewel Tower is a small building designed in an L-shape, so as not to encroach on what was then the King’s garden. Its separation from the main palace was what enabled it to survive the fire of 1834.

It is now the permanent home of the exhibition Parliament Past And Present, as well as housing a display of the designs that Sir Charles Barry defeated in the competition for the rebuilding after the fire. Next to the Tower are the remains of the moat that once ran along two sides of it, as well as the medieval quay.