FOLLOWING the destruction of much of the Palace of Westminster by fire on October 16, 1834, an architectural competition was held to identify the designer of its successor. The winner, announced in 1836, was a 39-year-old architect, one Charles Barry. He continued to work on this project until his death in 1860.
Barry designed the new building in an eclectic Gothic style (his son later claimed he would have preferred the ‘Italian style’), an idiom that celebrated the roots of the English constitution in the medieval past. His designs drew particular inspiration from the Perpendicular architecture of Henry VII’s Chapel, begun in 1503, in neighbouring Westminster Abbey, one of the most consistently admired medieval buildings in Britain. Collaborating with Barry in the project was the celebrated evangelist of the Gothic Revival, A. W. N. Pugin.
The new palace was conceived on the grandest scale, as befitted the seat of the parliament of what was then the richest and most powerful nation in the world. At the heart of the complex is Central Lobby, a vast octagonal space that connected the remnants of the medieval palace with the working interiors of its modern successor.
Denne historien er fra November 06, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 06, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
