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More Relics of the Old Palace of Westminster

25 January 2013 By Caroline Shenton

News of some other mementoes carved from the ruins of the old Palace of Westminster following the 1834 fire has reached me. This time they’ve been created from salvaged stonework, and depict a mysterious man and woman.

They’ve been drawn to my attention by landscape architect and historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, author of The London Square, (Yale, 2012) and belong to the T. Longstaffe-Gowan and T. Knox Collection.

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They’re really rather curious objects, each about 15cm high.  When viewed straight-on they might be a late-mediaeval monk and nun, both with heavy crucifixes and singing from missals.  He has a thick beard (though no tonsure), and she a stiff linen wimple. But look around the sides and you get a different view.  They are both seated in wicker armchairs, and their clothes are strangely decorated.  Their sleeves are acanthus leaves and the woman’s headress and cuffs are strangely bobbled. She reminds me a little of Tenniel’s Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.  Todd wonders whether they were actually carved from salvaged stone by the masons building the new Palace (signatures are carved into the bases).  I wonder whether they were part of a larger set – maybe a chess set? Perhaps they were samples produced by miniature stonecarvers to show off their various techniques to the trade?  Or maybe they are simply a bit of faux medieval antiquarian fun, created in the aftermath of the fire when a great debate raged in the press about what sort of  style was suitable for a new Parliament building? What do you think?

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All images © T. Longstaffe-Gowan and T. Knox Collection.

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Relics of the Old Palace of Westminster

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Filed Under: Historic Westminster, Old Palace of Westminster, The 1834 Fire

About Caroline Shenton

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it 'microhistory at its absolute best' while Dan Jones considered it 'glorious'. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barryís War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as 'a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful'. During 2017 Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.

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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…

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