The Houses of Parliament: History, Art, Architecture [Hardcover]

The Houses of Parliament is a remarkable book, and Jacqueline and Christine Riding are to be congratulated on having produced it. They've assembled 16 essays, by leading experts in their fields, on the British Houses of Parliament - properly known as the Palace of Westminster - as built by Barry and Pugin after the fire of 1834 which destroyed the old palace, and then repaired by Scott after the Blitz. (They have been able to do this because they are themselves experts on the building and its contents, having both worked there as curators for several years.)

In the first serious book on the subject for more than 20 years, the Ridings have broadened the coverage of the traditional architectural monograph to include the precursors, genesis, construction, decoration and furnishing of the Palace, as well as paying welcome attention to the ways that ceremony and the monarchy's constitutional role have been embodied in the form and ornamentation of the building. This leads to a much richer reading of the building than would otherwise have been the case - it emerges as a true 'Theatre of State' - as well as being a timely reminder about the nature of the British constitution, and the changes it has undergone since the 1830s. Whilst many of us are familiar with images of certain parts of the Palace in the media, few of us actually know what much of the building looks like, or why it is the way it is; this book will give you the answers.

The individual essays strike a very successful balance between erudition and readability: there is little here to deter the casual reader, and much that is highly informative. (It would be invidious to single any one contributor out for particular praise.) The texts are also complemented by very many illustrations - the great majority in colour - which have been reproduced to a very high standard. The book's lavish appearance would make it a welcome addition to any coffee-table; its contents, an equally welcome addition to any serious library. ...I would urge you to buy it if you have any interest in British politics, history, art or architecture.

This is a review of the original 2000 edition. It is a sumptuous tome, profusely illustrated with both archive and contemporary photographs, plans, and artwork. The editors are (sisters?) Christine and Jacqueline Riding, at the time of publication the former was a curator at the Tate Britain, and the latter director of the Handel House Museum (and formerly Assistant Curator at the Palace of Westminster).

The editors point out that although the theatre of parliament is a relatively well-known experience, the building in which that drama takes place remains, "surprisingly, unknown to the broader public" However, In order to update previous accounts and to re-evaluate the building and its contents, "it was evident to a group of curators working at the Palace of Westminster that a new publication was required, both for the interested member of the public and the scholar." There are sixteen chapters covering a wide variety of topics and each written by an expert in their field. This book is therefore not a systematic description of the building, but rather a collection of essays about various aspects thereof.

The chapter one would expect is the seventh of the sixteen, Alexandra Wedgwood's `The New Palace of Westminster'. The author makes clear her view that Pugin's role in interior decoration, whilst vital, was nevertheless subordinate to Barry's: "It is important to remember this nowadays, when there is so much interest in Pugin that Barry's role is almost forgotten." The illustrations include their respective designs for the throne in the House of Lords; it was Barry's that was built, not Pugin's.

The book's first chapter, though, is `The Palace of Westminster as Palace of Varieties' by David Cannadine. It acts very much as an introduction, although Cannadine's essay addresses an important issue in its own right. It is concerned "with the history of nation and empire, politics and ceremony, and their complex, contingent and changing relationship with architecture and the decorative arts." Cannadine notes that Barry "designed a building that was more a royal residence than a democratic legislature - instantly antique and self-consciously historical, richly ornamented, and full of allusions to the national past ... The result was a new/old building, proclaiming continuity rather than change." Of Pugin, Cannadine says "There was about him, as about the Palace of Westminster, an unmistakable aura of Gothic enchantment, escapism and illusion."

Logically, the editors should then have followed with John Goodall's essay on the old medieval Palace of Westminster. His is a wonderfully clear exposition on the development of the site from Saxon times onwards up to the 1834 fire. And logic would also dictate that Andrea Fredericksen's `Parliament's Genius Loci: The Politics of Place after the 1834 Fire' would follow that. This is arguably the most important essay in the whole collection. The author chronicles not only the battle of styles but also the battle of sites. St James's Park? Green Park? Leicester Square? "Debates reveal that it was not a foregone conclusion that the Houses of Parliament were to be located at Westminster. Indeed, these debates show that a new questioning spirit had entered into the planning of public monuments. But the power of tradition overcame `reform'.

But strangely, as the second essay after Cannadine's, we have Henry Cobb's `The Staging of Ceremonies of State in the House of Lords'. This is largely concerned with the descriptions of state openings of parliament. It is certainly of historical interest, but (writing as a republican) one questions all the ludicrous falderol that still takes place there today. A similar theme is taken up in Steven Parissien's Meanwhile, in `Romancing the Past: Image and Theatre at the Coronation of George IV'. Despite only tangentially featuring the Houses of Parliament, his contribution is interesting nevertheless, focussing on George IV's reputation - perceived by himself and by the world around him - as best exemplified in his coronation ceremony. Another essay that uses the Palace of Westminster tangentially is that of Jacqueline Riding herself. In ` "My Gorgeous Palace": Richard II, Restorations and Revivals', she explores the king's rehabilitation in and through nineteenth-century literature and theatre, Scott and Shakespeare.

In Sean Sawyer's `Sir John Soane and the late Georgian Origins of the Royal Entrance', he shows how Barry's designs were mirrored in those conceived by Soane a few years before. Meanwhile Gavin Stamp reviews the rebuilding after the Blitz in ` "We Shape Our Buildings and Afterwards Our Buildings Shape Us": Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and the Rebuilding of the House of Commons'. Scott's was a synthesis of Barry and Pugin's gothic with the democratic secular age. Scott eschewed a purely modernist approach as inappropriate.

The title of this review - "the best club in London" - derives from a late-Victorian description of the complex's facilities. In ` "New Furniture of a Suitable and Proper Character": The Working Interiors 1849-60', Dorian Church provides a pedestrian description. Indeed, the last collection of essays focuses on artistic matters. Christine Riding looks at a comparison of the pre- and post-fire thrones, as well as the speaker's chair, as well as looking at the speaker's apartments, their furnishings and silver. Janet McLean addresses Prince Albert's input into the building's decor through the Fine Arts Commission. William Vaughan analyses the background to the choice - both style and subject-matter - of artworks in the new palace, a subject elaborated further by Debra Mancoff, whose essay title (`Myth and Monarchy: Chivalric Legends for the Victorian Age') points the way. Sculpture is addressed in the final essay by Benedict Read. He sees the impulse to sculpture given in Britain by the Houses of Parliament as leading to similar schemes in Victorian town and city halls up and down the land.

There is no closing essay to sum up all that has gone before. But we have endnotes, a bibliography, and index. To sum up this review, though, I would say that this is a fascinating and beautiful book. For sure some of the essays are bland and would appeal only to the specialist, but there are still some great five-star chapters in which to fully lose yourself. The illustrations in the book are profuse and well-chosen. I would, however, have wished that the editors had attempted to clarify whether certain views shown were of the same room at different periods, as different names were given over time to certain importance spaces, and one wondered whether, for example, the Painted Chamber was the same as the White Hall, or the Queen's Chamber. This way, the reader would have been able to see for himself the development of tastes in furnishings and architectural styles. It would also have been useful to have the plans on pages 52 and 120 greatly enlarged and used as endpapers for ease of reference. Maybe for future editions?

One failing of this book is to explore the relationship with other legislatures around the world, although this is slightly touched upon in a negative sense.