The
Palace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
has suffered two major
firesConflagration is an uncontrolled burning that threatens human life, health, property or ecology. A conflagration can be accidentally or intentionally created . Arson can be accomplished for the purpose of sabotage, diversion, and also can be the consequence of pyromania. During conflagration the...
since it became home to
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
in the 16th century. The first fire in 1834 destroyed virtually everything but Westminster Hall; the second, caused by
GermanNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
bombing during the
London BlitzThe Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the Blitz hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights...
of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, only caused partial damage.
The Palace originally became home to the
Parliament of EnglandThe Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. The English Parliament traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In 1066, William of Normandy brought a feudal system, by which he sought advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
after King
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
abandoned it as a royal residence after a fire in 1512.
The first fire, in 1834, was caused by the destruction of
tally sticksA tally was an ancient memory aid device to record and document numbers, quantities, or even messages.Tally sticks first appear as notches carved on animal bones, in the Upper Paleolithic...
.
The
Palace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
has suffered two major
firesConflagration is an uncontrolled burning that threatens human life, health, property or ecology. A conflagration can be accidentally or intentionally created . Arson can be accomplished for the purpose of sabotage, diversion, and also can be the consequence of pyromania. During conflagration the...
since it became home to
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
in the 16th century. The first fire in 1834 destroyed virtually everything but Westminster Hall; the second, caused by
GermanNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
bombing during the
London BlitzThe Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the Blitz hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights...
of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, only caused partial damage.
The Palace originally became home to the
Parliament of EnglandThe Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. The English Parliament traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In 1066, William of Normandy brought a feudal system, by which he sought advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
after King
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
abandoned it as a royal residence after a fire in 1512.
The 1834 Fire
The first fire, in 1834, was caused by the destruction of
tally sticksA tally was an ancient memory aid device to record and document numbers, quantities, or even messages.Tally sticks first appear as notches carved on animal bones, in the Upper Paleolithic...
. The account of this event is due to the English novelist
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
, as described in a book by Tobias Dantzig. Speaking at a conference on governmental reform, Dickens told how counting devices destroyed "the halls of government". Long before Dickens' time, literate clerks of the
ExchequerThe Exchequer was a part of the governments of England , Scotland, and Northern Ireland that was responsible for the management and collection of revenues...
ceased to use tally sticks. In 1724, Treasury officials commanded that tallies no longer be used, but they long remained valid.
Said Dickens:
- "... it took until 1826 to get these sticks abolished. In 1834 ... there was a considerable accumulation of them. ... [W]hat was to be done with such worn-out worm-eaten, rotten old bits of wood? The sticks were housed in Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
, and it would naturally occur to any intelligent person that nothing could be easier than to allow them to be carried away for firewood by the miserable people who lived in that neighborhood. However [the sticks were no longer] useful and official routine required that they never should be, and so the order went out that they should be privately and confidentially burned. It came to pass that they were burned in a stove in the House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
. The stove, overgorged with these preposterous sticks, set fire to the panelling; the panelling set fire to the House of Commons; the two houses [of government] were reduced to ashes; architects were called in to build others; and we are now in the second million of the cost thereof."
The Palace of Westminster was rebuilt according to a design by
Sir Charles BarrySir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in his home city of London during the mid 19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.-Training:Born in Bridge Street, Westminster, he was the son...
with neo-Gothic detailing by A.W.N. Pugin. It was opened in 1844. Though Dickens deplored the cost, the building is among the most familiar landmarks of London.
The English landscape painter,
J. M. W. TurnerJoseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting...
(1775-1851), painted the burning of the Palace of Westminster from memory, having witnessed it firsthand.
The 1941 Fire
The
Palace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
was again badly damaged by fire during the London Blitz on the night of May 10 1941. During the air raid that night, German bombers attacked London with
incendiary bombsIncendiary weapons, Incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus.According to the...
, several of which set the Commons Chamber alight. The ensuing fire destroyed the interior and collapsed the roof, causing massive internal damage to the building, as well as killing three staff. Other areas were also badly hit, but the Lords Chamber and Westminster Hall survived with only slight damage. The building would also be damaged to a lesser degree on fourteen other occasions in the Second World War, the last coming in July 1944. The rebuilt Commons Chamber was based on the design of the old chamber, and was completed in 1950 by Sir
Giles Gilbert ScottSir Giles Gilbert Scott, OM, FRIBA was an English architect known for his work on such buildings as Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station....
.
See also
- UK Parliament podcast with Parliamentary Archives about the 1834 fire.
- Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605...
- who failed to blow up the British Houses of Parliament in 1605, but is still commemorated each year with bonfires.
- List of historic fires
- Manchester Guardian Report on the 1834 fire at Westminster.