PALACE OF WESTMINSTER: A SITE OF CONSTANT METAMORPHOSIS

· OVERVIEW:

The Palace of Westminster site was strategically important during the Middle Ages, as it was located on the banks of the River Thames, and proximity to water bodies was considered to be the most important parameter for residential constructions.

Right from the time of its construction, the Palace at Westminster was designed to be a royal residence (said to have first been used by Canute the Great during his reign from 1016 to 1035.)

The Palace was the monarch’s principal residence in the late Medieval period. This was its primary purpose, but it also provided itself for Parliamentary meetings and judicial hearings right from the time of its construction.

In 1512, during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential ("privy") area of the palace, which caused the monarch to take up residence in the York Palace, renamed the Palace of Whitehall. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various royal law courts for their official purposes. This change in the purpose of the function of the structure was unforeseen, and it was unsupported by the design of the structure. Thus began a series of changes and remodeling’s done to adapt the structure to its new functions.

Because it was originally a royal residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses of Parliament. Important state ceremonies were held in the Painted Chamber which had been originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III. In 1801 the Upper House moved into the larger White Chamber (also known as the Lesser Hall).

The Palace of Westminster as a whole began to see significant alterations from the 18th century onward, as Parliament struggled to carry out its business in the limited available space and ageing buildings. The palace complex was substantially remodeled, this time by Sir John Soane, between 1824 and 1827.

· ANALYSIS THROUGH PLANS:

As the purpose of the Palace become more parliamentary, so did its structural design. The exact changes that were made are even too many to be tracked, but the series of plans alongside show why the building, in my opinion, has never been stationary. What follows is an attempt to depict the evolution of the Palace at Westminster over the past 1000 years, from existing records. It is important to note however that not all the buildings shown existed in isolation.

Plans 1 to 6 show those parts of the building which still exist to this day, or those of which we have recorded documentation. Plans 7 and 8 are more detailed and show the layout of the whole Palace as it would have looked in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The last two, plans 9 and 10 are accurate layouts of the New Palace of Westminster which still exists today.

· HISTORIC EVENTS:

Apart from the changed function, the historical events that this structure has faced also manipulated its renovation processes.

On 16 October 1834, another fire broke out in the Palace after an overheated stove used to destroy the Exchequer's stockpile of tally sticks set fire to the House of Lords Chamber. In the resulting conflagration both Houses of Parliament were destroyed, along with most of the other buildings in the palace complex. Westminster Hall was saved thanks to fire-fighting efforts and a change in the direction of the wind. The Jewel Tower, the Undercroft Chapel and the Cloisters and Chapter House of St Stephen's were the only other parts of the Palace to survive.

During the Second World War, the Palace of Westminster was hit by bombs on fourteen separate occasions. The Commons Chamber had to be abandoned and was destroyed during the war. It was rebuilt after the war under the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, in a simplified version of the old chamber's style. The work was undertaken by John Mowlem & Co. and construction lasted until 1950. The Lords Chamber was then renovated over the ensuing months; the Lords re-occupied it in May 1951.

As the need for office space in the Palace increased, Parliament acquired office space in the nearby Norman Shaw Building in 1975, and in the custom-built Portcullis House, completed in 2000. This increase has enabled all Members of Parliament (MP) to have their own office facilities.

· HISTORIC FRAMEWORK:

Thus, in case of the Palace of Westminster, its constantly evolving requirements mainly dictated the design of the entire building and provided a mould for its architecture.

Coupled with the rich cultural history that the structure has experienced, the events associated with the Palace led it towards its existing design today and made it a beautiful example of Gothic Revival architecture, recognized on a global level.