{"id":18573,"date":"2025-09-25T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=18573"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:31:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:31:50","slug":"the-temporary-chamber-of-the-house-of-commons-1835-1851","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/09\/25\/the-temporary-chamber-of-the-house-of-commons-1835-1851\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A place of business\u2019: the temporary chamber of the House of Commons, 1835-1851"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As part of our series on parliamentary buildings, Dr Kathryn Rix<\/a> of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project looks at the temporary chamber used by the House of Commons from 1835 until 1851, after its previous chamber was destroyed by fire in October 1834.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devastating fire<\/a> at the Palace of Westminster on 16 October 1834 made the House of Commons chamber in the former St. Stephen\u2019s Chapel unusable. The need to prorogue Parliament a week later \u2013 amid the still smouldering ruins \u2013 prompted makeshift arrangements<\/a> for both the Commons and the Lords. The small number of MPs who attended gathered in one of the surviving Lords committee rooms, before going to meet the peers in what had been the House of Lords library. A further prorogation in the Lords library took place on 18 December 1834.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
View of St Stephen’s Chapel as it appeared after the fire in October 1834; print by Frederick Mackenzie (1843); Yale Center for British Art<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

By the time Parliament reassembled in February 1835, the Commons and the Lords had both been provided with far more adequate temporary accommodation, which in the case of the Commons would be in use for the next 17 years. This was rather longer than anticipated, due to the delays which beset the building of the new Palace of Westminster designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin. Some of these delays were exacerbated by the difficulties of constructing new buildings on a site still being occupied by MPs and peers in their temporary accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of the 1834 fire, the possibility of moving MPs and peers elsewhere was discussed, and several alternative locations were mooted, including St. James\u2019s Palace, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, or Exeter Hall, a large public meeting venue on the Strand. William IV offered the recently renovated Buckingham Palace, which he apparently disliked and never moved into, as a possible solution. There were, however, strong objections to this. Its location was considered a major disadvantage: one London newspaper described it as \u2018quite out of the way of all business \u2013 inconvenient of access\u2019. In addition, it would require a substantial amount of internal remodelling to suit the requirements of parliamentarians, a process which would mean undoing much of the work recently completed at significant public expense. The government tactfully resisted the king\u2019s attempt to foist Buckingham Palace on them.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Buckingham Palace engraved by J. Woods, after Hablot Browne and R. Garland (published 1837)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Instead, plans to rehome MPs and peers at Westminster were rapidly drawn up by Sir Robert Smirke, an architect connected with the Office of Woods and Forests, who had been overseeing repairs to Westminster Hall when the fire took place. The House of Commons would use the building previously occupied by the House of Lords as its chamber, while the upper House was displaced into the Painted Chamber. These rooms had both been damaged by the fire and required considerable renovation work, but this began swiftly. Scaffolding was in place on the interior and exterior walls of the former House of Lords less than two weeks after the fire, in preparation for its conversion into temporary accommodation for MPs. By early November, between 300 and 400 workmen were on site roofing the two temporary chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Robert Smirke, by William Daniell, after George Dance (1809), \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On 19 February 1835, when Parliament assembled at Westminster after a change of government \u2013 Viscount Melbourne\u2019s Whig ministry had been replaced by Sir Robert Peel\u2019s Conservative administration \u2013 and a general election, the temporary accommodation was ready. This speedy construction was aided by working at night, the use of prefabricated timber and iron girders, and short-cuts such as papier m\u00e2ch\u00e9 for the ornamental mouldings. The Times<\/em> gave \u2018the highest credit\u2019 to Smirke, who within the limited space allocated had provided \u2018accommodation to a much greater extent than could \u2026 have been anticipated\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temporary Commons chamber now included the space which had been behind the throne for the king\u2019s robing room when this building had been the House of Lords. At the opposite end of the House, space was taken out for the lobby, which was made considerably larger than that formerly used by the Lords. The strangers\u2019 gallery was erected above this lobby, roughly where the gallery of the Lords had been, and \u2018spacious galleries\u2019 for members were erected on the two long sides of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One \u2018most important\u2019 feature, according to The Times<\/em>, which it had not been possible to incorporate within the confined space of the pre-1834 Commons chamber<\/a>, was a dedicated reporters\u2019 gallery<\/a> above the Speaker\u2019s chair, with its own separate entrance. In the old chamber, reporters<\/a> had been allocated the back row of the strangers\u2019 gallery, but often found themselves jostling with members of the public for seats. Their new gallery recognised the growing significance of the press in reporting on parliamentary proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
R. W. Billings\/William Taylor, The House of Commons as fitted up in 1835, published in Brayley and Britton’s The History of the Ancient Palace and Late Houses of Parliament at Westminster <\/em>(1836); Yale Center for British Art<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Initial reactions to the temporary Commons chamber were, like that of The Times<\/em>, generally positive. The Sun<\/em> described it as \u2018perhaps one of the most elegant specimens of taste\u2019, noting the oak seats covered with green Spanish leather, and the \u2018simple but most graceful elegance\u2019 of the galleries. While its plainness led some later observers to compare it to \u2018a railway station\u2019, \u2018a Primitive Methodist chapel\u2019, \u2018a hideous barn\u2019 or \u2018a wooden shanty\u2019, its \u2018conspicuously neat and simple\u2019 style was widely regarded as an advantage. As one guide to London observed, the lack of ornamentation and draperies showed that this was \u2018a place of business\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temporary chamber also had the major benefit of being able to accommodate a greater number of MPs than their previous one. According to a statement in the Commons in May 1850, it had room for 456 MPs (including in the galleries), in contrast with the 387 who could find a seat in the old chamber. John Cam Hobhouse, who as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests in the Melbourne ministry had been involved with planning the temporary accommodation, recorded in his diary on the opening day of the 1835 Parliament that he \u2018was much pleased with what I had some right to call my new temporary House of Commons\u2019. The MP for Bath, John Arthur Roebuck, declared that \u2018compared with the old, ugly place, it is a beautiful and commodious room\u2019. The diarist Charles Greville felt that MPs had got the better side of the bargain when it came to their temporary accommodation, contrasting their \u2018very spacious and convenient\u2019 chamber with the \u2018wretched dog-hole\u2019 provided for the Lords. The temporary Commons was not without its flaws, however, and there were alterations in subsequent years to improve its acoustics, ventilation and lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Henry Melville, House of Commons, The Speaker reprimanding a person at the bar, Yale Center for British Art<\/a>. This shows the temporary accommodation after alterations had been made (including to the roof) to improve the acoustics, ventilation and lighting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In addition, questions were raised about the costs of the temporary accommodation. In June 1835, the Commons was asked to approve expenditure of \u00a330,000 for the temporary buildings and \u00a314,000 for \u2018furniture and other necessary articles\u2019. The latter was deemed \u2018scandalously extravagant\u2019 by one MP, who protested that \u2018the country was called upon to pay upwards of 10,000l.<\/em> for nothing but a parcel of deal tables and a few rusty old chairs\u2019. The \u2018utter absurdity\u2019 of money being \u2018squandered\u2019 on temporarily patching up parts of the old Palace, on a site which would need to be built on as work on the new Palace progressed, was highlighted in the press. One Warwickshire newspaper drew an unfavourable comparison between the \u00a328,000 cost of Birmingham\u2019s new town hall, a building large enough to hold the members of both Houses, and the expenditure at Westminster. Allegations that this was \u2018a job\u2019 by Smirke were given added fuel by the fact that one of the two main contractors for the temporary accommodation, Messrs. Samuel Baker & Son, were related to Smirke by marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the temporary accommodation \u2013 not only the Commons chamber, but other facilities such as the committee rooms \u2013 continued to evolve and to require repair and maintenance over the next 17 years, the costs grew. In 1848, a select committee reported that \u00a3185,248 had so far been spent on temporary accommodation for the Lords and the Commons, \u2018of which very little will be available for future service\u2019. It argued that this ongoing expenditure was one reason to accelerate the completion of the new Palace. It would be another three years, however, before preparations were finally made in August 1851 to demolish the temporary Commons chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
The demolition of the temporary House of Commons is shown in the centre of this illustration from the Lady’s Own Paper<\/em>, 18 Oct. 1851, British Newspaper Archive<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Further reading<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C. Shenton, The Day Parliament Burned Down <\/em>(2012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J. Mordaunt Crook & M. H. Port, The History of the King\u2019s Works. Volume VI 1782-1851<\/em> (1973)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also this post<\/a> by Rebekah Moore which discusses the temporary Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an updated version of an article originally published on the\u00a0Victorian Commons website<\/a>\u00a0on 28 October 2022, written by\u00a0Dr Kathryn Rix<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of our series on parliamentary buildings, Dr Kathryn Rix of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project looks at the temporary chamber used by the House of Commons from 1835 until 1851, after its previous chamber was destroyed by fire in October 1834. The devastating fire at the Palace of Westminster on 16 October 1834 made the House of Commons chamber in the former … Continue reading \u2018A place of business\u2019: the temporary chamber of the House of Commons, 1835-1851<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37726181,"featured_media":18580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[124494893,4706867,73396375,774275741,774275561],"tags":[424773561,35890,339464404,339464410,11919432,49246],"class_list":["post-18573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-victorian-commons","category-19th-century-history","category-parliamentary-buildings","category-parliamentary-life","category-victorian","tag-1834-westminster-fire","tag-featured","tag-palace-of-westminster-fire","tag-parliaments-temporary-buildings","tag-st-stephens-chapel","tag-westminster"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ycba_66e4c3ef-6875-40cb-ae2d-a3cd34e90793.jpg?fit=1119%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-4Pz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2213,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2018\/03\/15\/symbolising-political-change-space-and-the-temporary-house-of-commons\/","url_meta":{"origin":18573,"position":0},"title":"Symbolising political change: space and the temporary House of Commons","author":"History of Parliament","date":"March 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Rebekah Moore is currently completing a PhD (Institute of Historical Research\/History of Parliament) on the temporary Houses of Parliament and the new Palace of Westminster, 1830-1860. In this guest blog, she draws some parallels between the current proposals for Restoration and Renewal at Westminster and events in the nineteenth century.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/periods\/victorian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"WOA 15 temporary house of commons","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/woa-15-temporary-house-of-commons.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":901,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2015\/03\/24\/parliaments-politics-and-people-seminar-rebekah-moore-contested-spaces-temporary-houses-of-parliament-and-government-1834-52\/","url_meta":{"origin":18573,"position":1},"title":"Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Rebekah Moore, ‘Contested spaces: temporary houses of Parliament and government, 1834-52’","author":"History of Parliament","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At our last \u2018Parliaments, Politics and People\u2019 seminar, Rebekah Moore, holder of an AHRC collaborative doctoral award with the History of Parliament and Institute of Historical Research, gave a paper on the temporary Houses of Parliament after the fire of 1834. Here Rebekah gives an overview of her paper\u2026 From\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences, Seminars and Events"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences, Seminars and Events","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/topics\/conferencesseminars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1149,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2016\/01\/13\/parliament-and-its-buildings\/","url_meta":{"origin":18573,"position":2},"title":"Restored, Renewed, Relocated: Parliament and its buildings","author":"History of Parliament","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Before Christmas Rebekah Moore, holder of an AHRC collaborative doctoral award with the History of Parliament and Institute of Historical Research, organised a seminar in Westminster to discuss Parliament's accomodation. Here she reports back... In December, Mark Egan (the HPT's former Secretary) and I organised a seminar at Westminster Hall.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences, Seminars and Events"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences, Seminars and Events","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/topics\/conferencesseminars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/engraving-chamber-1941.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16216,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/10\/16\/the-westminster-fire-of-1834\/","url_meta":{"origin":18573,"position":3},"title":"The Westminster Fire of 1834","author":"History of Parliament","date":"October 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In this guest article, Dr Caroline Shenton, author of 'The Day Parliament Burned Down' and 'Mr Barry's War: Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament after the Great Fire of 1834', describes the dramatic events that took place at the Palace of Westminster on 16 October 1834. By the late Georgian period,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian Commons"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian Commons","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/victorian-commons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/POW_POW_1978-001.jpg?fit=1200%2C1011&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/POW_POW_1978-001.jpg?fit=1200%2C1011&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/POW_POW_1978-001.jpg?fit=1200%2C1011&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/POW_POW_1978-001.jpg?fit=1200%2C1011&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/POW_POW_1978-001.jpg?fit=1200%2C1011&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7050,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2021\/04\/27\/adapting-the-chambers-of-parliament\/","url_meta":{"origin":18573,"position":4},"title":"Adapting the chambers of Parliament: from the galleries of the 18th-century Lords to the division lobbies of the 19th-century Commons","author":"Kathryn Rix","date":"April 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Ahead of next Tuesday\u2019s Virtual\u00a0IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Robin Eagles and Dr Kathryn Rix, of the History of Parliament. On 4 May 2021, between 5.15 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., they will each be giving a 15 minute presentation, followed by a joint Q &\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences, Seminars and Events"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences, Seminars and Events","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/topics\/conferencesseminars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/pow_pow_2737-001.jpg?fit=1067%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/pow_pow_2737-001.jpg?fit=1067%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/pow_pow_2737-001.jpg?fit=1067%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/pow_pow_2737-001.jpg?fit=1067%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/pow_pow_2737-001.jpg?fit=1067%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":479,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2013\/10\/16\/the-fire-of-1834\/","url_meta":{"origin":18573,"position":5},"title":"Burning the House down: The Fire of 1834","author":"Emma Peplow","date":"October 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today in 1834 a huge fire swept through the old Palace of Westminster, destroying most of the medieval buildings. Caroline Shenton, of the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster and author of 'The Day Parliament Burned Down', has written a new article for the 'Explore' section of our website to mark the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/periods\/victorian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37726181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18573"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18741,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions\/18741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}