St Stephen's Chapel
St Stephen's Chapel, sometimes called the Royal Chapel of St Stephen, was a chapel completed around 1297 in the old
The present-day St Stephen's Hall and its porch, which are within the new Palace of Westminster built in the 19th century, stand on exactly the same site and are today accessed through the St Stephen's Entrance, the public entrance of the House of Commons.
History
As a Royal Chapel
According to Cooke (1987),
Historical events
Two royal weddings are recorded as having been solemnised in St Stephen's Chapel. On 20 January 1382,
On the night before the 1911 census, women's suffragist Emily Davison spent the night in a broom cupboard in the back of the crypt in order to be able to give her address as the House of Commons, despite not being allowed to stand for Parliament or vote.[8] A plaque was unofficially placed in the cupboard to commemorate this in around 1991 by the late Tony Benn MP. He put the plaque in place with his own hands and proudly showed it to visitors. He later installed a second plaque for a purpose which is now lost but the Palace authorities required him to remove it. The screw holes are still visible.
As the House of Commons chamber
The former chapel's layout and functionality influenced the positioning of furniture and the seating of Members of Parliament in the Commons. The Speaker's chair was placed on the altar steps – arguably the origin of the tradition of members bowing to the Speaker, as they would formerly have done to the altar. Where the lectern had once been, the Table of the House was installed. The members sat facing one another in the medieval choir stalls, creating the adversarial seating plan that persists in the chamber of the Commons to this day. The old choir screen, with its two side-by-side entrances, was also retained and formed the basis of the modern voting system for parliamentarians, with "aye" voters passing through the right-hand door and "no" voters passing through the left-hand one.[10]
In order to suit the needs of the House of Commons, various changes to the chapel's original
Fire and reconstruction
The fire of 1834 totally destroyed the main body of the chapel, with the crypt below, and the adjoining cloisters, barely surviving. Amongst the few furnishings rescued from the flames was the Table of the House, which is now kept in the Speaker's apartments at the palace. Although it was demolished shortly after the fire, the surviving stone shell of the chapel, with all its later additions burned away, attracted many visitors and antiquaries who came to view the original medieval decorations which had become visible once again. The historical importance of the chapel was realised in the design of the new palace in the form of St Stephen's Hall, the lavishly decorated main public entrance hall built on the same floor plan as the old chapel, with the position of the Speaker's chair marked out on the floor.[12]
The crypt below St Stephen's Hall, the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, which had fallen into disuse some time before the fire and had seen a number of uses, was restored, and returned to its original use as a place of worship. It is still used for this purpose today. Children of peers, who possess the style of "The Honourable", have the privilege of being able to use it as a wedding venue. Members of Parliament and peers have the right to use the chapel as a place of christening.[13]
The body of Margaret Thatcher was kept in St Mary Undercroft on the night before her funeral on 17 April 2013.[14]
Further reading
- Maurice Hastings, St Stephen's Chapel and its Place in the Development of Perpendicular Style in England (1955)
- Sir Robert Cooke, The Palace of Westminster (London: Burton Skira, 1987)
References
- ISBN 0709923856), p. 7
- ^ Anne of Bohemia Archived 2011-09-20 at the Wayback Machine, Reformation Society website. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ a b Anne Mowbray, Duchess of York from Westminster Abbey website. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ "1483-The Year of Three Kings" Archived 17 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ISBN 0851157424), p. 3
- ^ Kenneth R. Mackenzie, Parliament (1962), p. 29
- ^ The gentleman's magazine and historical chronicle, vol. 80, Part 1 (1810), p. 4
- ^ William Kent, An Encyclopaedia of London (1951), p. 639
- The Builder in 1884, according to www.parliament.uk.
- ^ Kim Dovey, Framing Places: Mediting Power in Built Form (1999), p. 87
- ^ Anthony Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500, vol. 3 (2006), p. 256
- ^ J. N. Spellen, The Inner Life of the House of Commons (1854), p. 6
- ISBN 0719072077), p. 97
- ^ BBC News 16-4-13
External links
- explore-parliament.net – shows various views of the chapel, notably this image.
- https://www.virtualststephens.org.uk/ - including a section on 'Visualizing St Stephens' throughout its history