• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Caroline Shenton

Archivist, historian and writer

  • Home
  • Books
    • National Treasures
    • Mr Barry’s War
    • The Day Parliament Burned Down
    • Victoria Tower Treasures
  • Speaking
  • Consultancy
  • About
  • News
  • Contact

The Man Who Saved Westminster Hall

22 June 2011 By Caroline Shenton

Today is the 150th anniversary of the death of Superintendant James Braidwood. He was the man who saved Westminster Hall in the great fire of 1834 through the innovative firefighting techniques he had first developed when fire chief in Edinburgh.

His death was both tragic and horribly ironic. He died at the enormous Tooley Street warehouse fire in 1861, when he was buried under a falling wall – his body was retrieved only two days later. The iron firedoors which he had designed and recommended for all such premises had been left open, causing his death. If there was one other fire between 1666 and the Blitz which deserves the dubious accolade of being the ‘greatest’, beside the 1834 blaze, it was the Tooley Street conflagration. The Westminster fire was certainly the more significant, but Tooley Street was bigger and more prolonged: the tallow inside the warehouses melted, and set fire to the Thames for two weeks afterwards. A plaque marks the spot of the 1861 fire, today close to London Bridge station.

In 2008 a statue to Braidwood was finally erected on Parliament Square – but not the one in Westminster, the one off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. But perhaps his greatest memorial is Westminster Hall, still standing after 900 years, because of his efforts and those of his men.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

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.

Footer

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 Crown Jewels in Wartime
  • Nine Ways to Support An Author for Free
  • Tickets for The Day Parliament Burned Down, 16 Oct 2021 6pm
  • Safe As Houses – An Article for Historic Houses Magazine
  • All the News that’s Fit to Print

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Sign up for my newsletter!

© 2012–2023 Caroline Shenton | All Rights Reserved | Website by Callia Web