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The Day Parliament Burned DownStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionIn the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor, and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their contents. No one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it. The events of that October day in 1834 were as shocking and significant to contemporaries as the death of Princess Diana was to us at the end of the 20th century - yet today this national catastrophe is a forgotten disaster, not least because Barry and Pugin's monumental new Palace of Westminster has obliterated all memory of its 800 year-old predecessor. Rumours as to the fire's cause were rife. Was it arson, terrorism, the work of foreign operatives, a kitchen accident, careless builders, or even divine judgement on politicians? In this, the first full-length book on the subject, Parliamentary Archivist Caroline Shenton unfolds the gripping story of the fire over the course of that fateful day and night. AwardsWinner of Paddy Power and Total Politics Political Book Awards: Political Book of the Year 2012. Author descriptionCaroline Shenton is Clerk of the Records at the Parliamentary Archives in London. She was previously a senior archivist at the National Archives and has worked in and around collections relating to the old Palace of Westminster for over twenty years. Educated at the University of St Andrews, Worcester College Oxford and University College London, she is a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society. This is her first book. Table of contentsPrologue ; 1. Thursday 16 October 1834, 6am: Mr Hume's Motion for a New House ; 2. Thursday 16 October 1834, 7am: Novelty, Novelty, Novelty ; 3. Thursday 16 October 1834, 9am: Worn-out, worm-eaten, rotten old bits of wood ; 4. Thursday 16 October 1834, 3pm: Manifest Indications of Danger ; 5. Thursday 16 October 1834, 6pm: One of the Greatest Instances of Stupidity Upon Record ; 6. Thursday 16 October 1834, 7pm: The Brilliancy of Noonday ; 7. Thursday 16 October 1834, 8pm: Immense and Appalling Splendour ; 8. Thursday 16 October 1834, 9pm: Damn the House of Commons! ; 9. Thursday, 16 October 1834, 10pm: But Save, Oh Save, the Hall! ; 10. Thursday 16 October 1834, 11pm: Milton's Pandemonium ; 11. Friday 17 October 1834, Midnight: A National Calamity ; 12. Friday 17 October 1834, 1am: Emptying the Thames ; 13. Friday 17 October 1834, 3.30am: Thank God We Seem All Safe ; 14. Friday 17 October 1834, 4am: Guy Faux has Rose Again ; 15. Friday 17 October 1834, 6am: Past Peril ; Epilogue ; Dramatis Personae ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index |