On the evening of 16 October 1834, the ancient Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British Parliament for centuries, was consumed by one of the most spectacular fires in London’s history. What began as a somewhat less-than-routine act of housekeeping ended in catastrophe, destroying most of the medieval complex and clearing the way for the grand Gothic Revival building that stands today.
The cause of the disaster was almost absurdly mundane: the disposal of old tally sticks.
The Palace of Westminster on Fire, 1834, by an unknown artist. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Tally sticks were an archaic system of record-keeping used by the English Exchequer since at least the 12th century. A tally was a piece of wood, usually willow, notched to indicate a debt or payment. The stick was then split lengthwise into two halves. The “stock” was retained by the creditor (the Crown), and the “foil” was given to the debtor. Because the grain of the wood ensured that the two halves would only fit perfectly with each other, the system served as a crude but effective safeguard against forgery. By the 19th century, however, tally sticks had long since been replaced by paper records, leaving behind vast quantities of obsolete wooden tallies stored in government offices.
In 1834, officials decided to dispose of this accumulated stock. Instead of giving it away to the parliamentary staff to be used as firewood, they ordered that the sticks be burned in the furnaces beneath the House of Lords. Over the course of the day, workmen fed the dry wood into the stoves in excessive quantities. The furnaces had been designed to burn coal, which gives off a high heat with little flame. Wood, on the other hand, burns with a high flame. The furnaces, never designed to handle such a load, overheated dramatically. The heat from the fires melted the copper lining of the flues and started a chimney fire, which ignited the surrounding woodwork hidden behind the walls and floors.
Medieval tally sticks. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Palace of Westminster at the time was a sprawling, ramshackle structure, its origins stretching back to the Middle Ages. It had been altered, extended, and patched up repeatedly over centuries with little regard for coherence or safety. Narrow passageways twisted unpredictably through the complex. Wooden beams, panelling, and floors abounded. With a labyrinth of dry timber threaded with overheated chimneys, the building was a disaster waiting to happen.
The potential dangers of the building were apparent to some. In the late eighteenth century a committee of MPs predicted that there would be a disaster if the palace caught fire. This was followed by a 1789 report from fourteen architects warning against the possibility of fire in the palace. The architect John Soane warned of the dangers in 1828, when he wrote that "the want of security from fire, the narrow, gloomy and unhealthy passages, and the insufficiency of the accommodations in this building are important objections which call loudly for revision and speedy amendment."
By early evening, smoke began to seep into the House of Lords chamber. Two gentlemen tourists who have come to see the Armada tapestries that hung there were unable to view them properly because of the thick smoke. As they approached Black Rod's box in the corner of the room, they felt heat from the floor coming through their boots.
The House of Commons, 1833, by Sir George Hayter
The first flames were spotted at 6:00 pm, under the door of the House of Lords, by the wife of one of the doorkeepers. She entered the chamber to see Black Rod's box alight, and flames burning the curtains and wood panels, and raised the alarm.
At 6:30 pm a tremendous ball of flame burst through the roof of the House of Lords and lit up the skyline. It was reportedly seen by the royal family in Windsor Castle, 20 miles away. Crowds gathered along the banks of the Thames to watch the unfolding spectacle. About a hundred soldiers were deployed to keep the crowd under control. Some of the soldiers assisted the firemen in pumping the water supply from the engines.
The fire destroyed the House of the Lords, as well as the Painted Chamber, and the connecting end of the Royal Gallery. The House of Commons, along with its library and committee rooms, the official residence of the Clerk of the House and the Speaker's House, were devastated. However, a few important medieval structures survived, most notably Westminster Hall, whose massive hammer-beam roof narrowly escaped destruction, and the Jewel Tower. Despite the size and ferocity of the fire, there were no deaths and only nine casualties.
The Burning of the Houses of Parliament, by William Heath. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The event drew widespread attention, not only for its dramatic scale but also for the sheer irony of its cause. That a centuries-old seat of government should be destroyed by the careless burning of obsolete accounting tools struck many observers as symbolic of typical bureaucratic folly. Some of the crowd that gathered to watch the fire cheered and whistled as the breeze fled into the flames. “There's a flare-up (what we call shine) for the House o' Lords”, someone remarked. “A judgment for the Poor-Law Bill!”, quipped another.
A committee was established to investigate the fire, which concluded after 2 weeks that the cause of the fire was undoubtedly the burning of the tallies. The committee noted that the two Irish labourers, Joshua Cross and Patrick Furlong, who were assigned the task of burning the tallies had not been as careful as they had claimed. The report stated that “it is unfortunate that Mr Weobley (the Clerk of Works) did not more effectively superintend the burning of the tallies”.
The ruins of the old Parliament house were torn down, and its place rose the iconic Gothic Revival palace designed by Charles Barry with interiors by Augustus Pugin. Stretching along the north bank of the River Thames, the palace presents a long, symmetrical façade punctuated by towers, pinnacles, and elaborate stonework. At either end of the building rise its most famous towers. To the south stands the Victoria Tower, a massive square structure that serves as the sovereign’s entrance to Parliament and houses the Parliamentary Archives. At the northern end is the clock tower, home to the iconic Big Ben. The old Westminster Hall, the great medieval survivor of the fire, is seamlessly integrated into the new complex.
The Palace of Westminster from the River after the Fire of 1834. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons by J. M. W. Turner. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
According to Mireille Galinou and John Hayes, the fire became the “single most depicted event in nineteenth-century London ... attracting to the scene a host of engravers, watercolourists and painters”. Among them were J. M. W. Turner, the landscape painter, who later produced two pictures of the fire, and the Romantic painter John Constable, who sketched the fire from a hansom cab on Westminster Bridge.
In the blaze was also lost the British standard measurements, the yard and pound, that had been created in 1496. This led to an overhaul of the British weights and measures system, and the adoption to two competing systems, the avoirdupois and troy measures.
The Palace of Westminster was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, and is classified as being of “one of the most significant monuments of neo-Gothic architecture, as an outstanding, coherent and complete example of neo-Gothic style.” The Parliament is laid out around 11 courtyards, and the building includes a total of 1,180 rooms, 126 staircases and 2 miles of corridors. It was also built at a staggering cost—£2.5 million, equivalent to more than £300 million in today’s value.
The House of Parliament today. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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