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Caroline Shenton

archivist, historian and writer

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Parliamentary History

A Visit to the Tower of London Zoo in 1827

27 April 2012 By Caroline Shenton

A Visit to the Tower of London Zoo in 1827

By the early 1830s, many people thought that Parliament should move away from Westminster to the West End. Part of the reason was that John Nash’s development of Regent’s Street had shifted the fashionable focus of the City north-west. One of the trendy delights in the former Marylebone Fields was the new Zoological Gardens at […]

Filed Under: Historic Westminster, Parliamentary History

Westminster’s Body Double

13 February 2012 By Caroline Shenton

Westminster’s Body Double

Those of you who’ve recently seen The Iron Lady will also have seen a very experienced body double in action.  No, not a stand-in for Meryl Streep (congrats on the BAFTA, by the way, Meryl!), but a regular stand-in for the Palace of Westminster: Manchester Town Hall. Alfred Waterhouse’s design at Manchester was, like Barry and Pugin’s in […]

Filed Under: Historic Westminster, Parliamentary History

My New Year Reading Resolutions

3 January 2012 By Caroline Shenton

I had a great haul of books in my Christmas stocking. Here’s a list of what I got from family and friends and will be reading over the next few months. Some of them are for general interest, some work, and some just for fun. First of all, I was given Mark Ormrod’s Edward III, one […]

Filed Under: Parliamentary History, Writing and Researching

Remember, Remember, the Old Palace of Westminster

5 November 2011 By Caroline Shenton

Because of the 1834 fire which burnt it down, many people don’t realise that there was a Houses of Parliament on site at Westminster – the old Palace  – before Barry and Pugin designed the current one.  Still fewer know what it looked like.  That’s led to some startling anachronisms when illustrating historic Parliamentary events, particularly in relation to the […]

Filed Under: Old Palace of Westminster, Parliamentary History

Gainful Employment

29 October 2011 By Caroline Shenton

Here is a little bit more about my day job (quite a lot of people seem interested in this!) which – along with my colleagues – is a great source of inspiration, posted by the lovely Peter Hay on his blog.  Also, you can view my contribution to Parliament Week on YouTube, where I talk about some of my favourite […]

Filed Under: Parliamentary History, Writing and Researching

Westminster’s Throne on Wheels

17 September 2011 By Caroline Shenton

Last week I made a whistle-stop trip to the Museum of London to look at Adam Lee’s 1808 plan of the old Palace of Westminster in their Library.  This was a document I had been trying to track down for at least a year, thanks to a garbled footnote.  Job done, I headed for the […]

Filed Under: Parliamentary History

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About Caroline

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. Read More…

Recent Posts

  • The Silence of the Bells
  • Petitions against the new Houses of Parliament
  • A Westminster Boy Made Good
  • Rebuilding Parliament: Victorian Lessons Learned
  • Publication Day!

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