Mr Barry's War

Mr Barry's War PDF

Author: Caroline Shenton

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 0198707193

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The saga of the epic battle to re-build the Houses of Parliament after the great fire of 1834, this is also the story of how the greatest construction programme in Britain for centuries produced one of the most famous and instantly recognizable buildings ever built.

The Houses of Parliament

The Houses of Parliament PDF

Author: David Cannadine

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13:

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For the first time in over twenty years, the exquisite and unique building of the Houses of Parliament, also known as the Palace of Westminster, is the subject of an authoritative and fully illustrated publication, offering new insight into Britain's most famous and celebrated symbol of state. Spanning the medieval period to the present day, The Houses of Parliament: History, Art, Architecture is a fresh, innovative study of this unique and complex Victorian building, placing it within a broad historical, political, and cultural context. The absorbing narrative is complemented by newly commissioned photography and rarely seen archival material, revealing the richly ornamented interiors, the art and the architecture, and how they relate to the political institutions within this monumental edifice, the site of British authority since the eleventh century. -- First book published on the building for over 20 years. -- Fresh perspectives on the history, architecture, art and design of one of the most famous and recognizable buildings in the world. -- Sumptuously illustrated with newly commissioned photography and unseen archival material and artwork from the medieval period to the present day. -- The scene of many of the most famous and significant events in British history and politics. Continues to be at the centre of the British political world today. -- One of the most visited monuments in Europe, drawing millions of tourists from Britain and around the world each year.

The Victorian Palace of Science

The Victorian Palace of Science PDF

Author: Edward J. Gillin

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-11-09

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1108321828

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The Palace of Westminster, home to Britain's Houses of Parliament, is one of the most studied buildings in the world. What is less well known is that while Parliament was primarily a political building, when built between 1834 and 1860, it was also a place of scientific activity. The construction of Britain's legislature presents an extraordinary story in which politicians and officials laboured to make their new Parliament the most radical, modern building of its time by using the very latest scientific knowledge. Experimentalists employed the House of Commons as a chemistry laboratory, geologists argued over the Palace's stone, natural philosophers hung meat around the building to measure air purity, and mathematicians schemed to make Parliament the first public space where every room would have electrically-controlled time. Through such dramatic projects, Edward J. Gillin redefines our understanding of the Palace of Westminster and explores the politically troublesome character of Victorian science.

Rebuilding the House

Rebuilding the House PDF

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: House of Commons Reform Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-03-15

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780215544803

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This is the first report from the House of Commons Reform Committee of the 2009-10 session (HCP 372), and follows an earlier report (HCP 1117, session 2008-09). The Committee aims to make the Commons matter more, increase its vitality and rebalance its relationship with the executive, and to give the public a greater voice in parliamentary proceedings. In the first two chapters the Committee sets out the wider background to its establishment in July 2009; seeks a prompt debate and decision on its proposals and their phased implementation; and describes the principles that have guided its work. The Committee recommends that the Chairs of departmental and similar select committees be directly elected by secret ballot of the House using the alternative vote. The Committee also recommends that members of departmental and similar committees should be elected from within party groups by secret ballot, and further recommends: (a) a reduction in the size of a standard departmental committee to not more than 11; (b) a Standing Order ensuring the election of members and Chairs of select committees within six weeks of the Queen's Speech; (c) the election by the House of the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee.The report looks at the prospects for some form of "agenda initiative" which might enable the public to ensure that a given issue is debated in the House. It concludes that opening up the process of legislation and giving the public a real opportunity to influence the content of draft laws should be a priority in the new Parliament.

Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament

Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament PDF

Author: Henrik Schoenefeldt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-30

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1351726277

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Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament explores the history of the UK Houses of Parliament in Westminster from an environmental design perspective, and the role David Boswell Reid played in the development of the original ventilation and climate control system in parliament. This book retraces and critically examines the evolution of the environmental principles underlying the design of the Houses of Parliament, engaging with fundamental questions about air quality, energy efficiency and thermal comfort. This yields insights into the historic methods of environmental design that were characterised by physical experimentation and post-occupancy evaluation. Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament examines the history of the buildings’ operation, studying the practical reality of its performance in use and offers the opportunity to reflect on current challenges faced by architects and engineers adapting to the realities of climate change. This book is an ideal read for academics, politicians and practitioners with an interest in architectural history and heritage, theory, engineering and conservation.

Demolishing Whitehall

Demolishing Whitehall PDF

Author: Adam Sharr

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 1351945254

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This book is about a lost world, albeit one less than 50 years old. It is the story of a grand plan to demolish most of Whitehall, London’s historic government district, and replace it with a ziggurat-section megastructure built in concrete. In 1965 the architect Leslie Martin submitted a proposal to Charles Pannell, Minister of Public Building and Works in Harold Wilson’s Labour government, for the wholesale reconstruction of London’s ’Government Centre’. Still reeling from war damage, its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century palaces stood as the patched-up headquarters of an imperial bureaucracy which had once dominated the globe. Martin’s plan - by no means modest in conception, scope or scale - proposed their replacement with a complex that would span the roads into Parliament Square, reframing the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The project was not executed in the manner envisaged by Martin and his associates, although a surprising number of its proposals were implemented. But the un-built architecture is examined here for its insights into a distinctive moment in British history, when a purposeful technological future seemed not just possible but imminent, apparently sweeping away an anachronistic Edwardian establishment to be replaced with a new meritocracy forged in the ’white heat of technology’. The Whitehall plan had implications well beyond its specific site. It was imagined by its architects as a scientific investigation into ideal building forms for the future, an important development in their project to unify science and art. For the political actors, it represented a tussle between government departments, between those who believed that Britain needed to discard much of its Victorian and Edwardian decoration in the name of ’professionalization’ and those who sought to preserve its ornate finery. Demolishing Whitehall investigates these tensions between ideas of technology and history, science and art, socialism and el

Parliament

Parliament PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789090297644

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"Parliament is the space where politics literally takes shape. Here, collective decisions take form in a specific setting where relationships between political actors are organized through architecture. The architecture of spaces of political congregation is not only an expression of a political culture, it also shapes this culture. 0Since 2010, architecture office XML has researched the architecture of spaces of political congregation. The book 'Parliament' explores the double-sided relationship between space and politics by documenting and comparing the plenary halls of the parliaments of all 193 United Nations member states. Almost like a manual archive, the book documents the rooms in the same style and scale and also provides key data and the assembly hall's location within the larger parliament building. Organized as a lexicon, the book allows comparison of all 193 national parliaments in the world." --Cover.