Inside the house of England's greatest commoner

Apollo, June, 2004 by Michael Hall

This year's loan exhibition organised by the British Antique Dealers' Association at the Grosvenor House Fair brings together treasures from the splendid interiors of the Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster. Michael Hall traces the history of this remarkable Victorian residence.

It is paradoxical that it was in the nineteenth century that the Houses of Parliament began to be described regularly as 'the Palace of Westminster', just as the building ceased to have any royal domestic function. The tradition of the monarch residing at Westminster on the night before the Coronation was revived by George IV in 1820, but then fell into abeyance for ever. Palatial although Charles Barry's mighty replacement of the medieval palace of Westminster undoubtedly is, it does not suggest domestic life, even of a royal kind. Yet from the start it was home to several of the senior officers of parliament, pre-eminent among them the Speaker. The state apartments of the Speaker's House are the setting for a ceremonial domestic life that was indeed intended to be appropriate to a palace. A glimpse of their splendour can be enjoyed in the loan exhibition of paintings, furniture, plate and ceramics on show in this year's BADA Grosvenor House exhibition.

Today the Speaker stands in the order of social precedence immediately after the peerage, ranking higher than any other commoner. That eminence has developed slowly over the past three centuries, as the United Kingdom evolved towards a parliamentary democracy from the late seventeenth century onwards. At the end of the eighteenth century, the ever increasing demands on the Speaker, as parliament met more frequently and for longer sessions, prompted the decision in 1794 to give him a residence within the Houses of Parliament.

Before that, the Speaker had only four rooms in St Stephen's Court of the medieval palace. It provided a place for eating and meeting people in private, and it is possible that on occasion the Speaker slept there. However, it was not a residence, and was not used for entertaining; for that, the Speaker was expected to maintain a sizeable establishment in central London at his own expense. The decision to give the Speaker a parliamentary residence was almost certainly due to the energy of Henry Addington, in whose time as Speaker (1789-1801) the office largely took on its modern form: he was, for example, the first Speaker to be paid a salary (6000 [pounds sterling]). He had an acute sense of the tradition of his role, and it was he who instituted the tradition of commissioning a portrait of each holder of the office. He also actively sought out portraits of his predecessors, to form a collection for display in his new residence. (The rising status of the Speaker was marked in addition by the allocation to him of a state coach previously used by the monarch.)

As well as presiding over the sessions of the Commons, the Speaker was expected to be the Commons' host. In other words, he was responsible for formal receptions--known as levees--and dinners. These were virtually court occasions, and guests indeed wore court dress, not evening dress. To carry out this function the Speaker was supplied with silver by the Crown, which he retained as a perquisite after leaving office. In 1833 a select committee proposed that the Speaker's Residence should instead be given a permanent collection of plate at Government expense. The result is still at the Speaker's House today, a complete dining service supplied by Garrard for 6000 [pounds sterling], with the date mark for 1835/36. Its most spectacular element is the set of candelabra--two smaller pairs and one large central candelabrum--which are hallmarked for Paul Storr, and dated 1836/37. It seems likely that they were subcontracted by Garrard to Storr, then nearing the end of his career and in partnership with John Mortimer in New Bond Street. The large candelabrum is crowned with figures of Fortitude and Justice, with Britannia and Hibernia flanking the stem.

The plate was for use in the new residence's most important interior, the state dining room, which occupied the eastern section of the lower floor of the medieval St Stephen's Chapel (in which the Commons sat); it survived the fire of 1834 which destroyed the Houses of Parliament, and the space it occupied now forms part of the Crypt Chapel. The Speakers' House, which had in 1808 been remodelled by the architect James Wyatt in a castellated gothic style, was not badly damaged in the fire, but the scale of Barry's design for the new Houses of Parliament mean that it had to be demolished. Parliament acquired a lease on 71 Eaton Square to accommodate the Speaker while the rebuilding was taking place, and paid for a large new dining room to he added to it.

Barry always envisaged providing a new Speaker's House, and allocated space for it at the north-east corner of the new palace, in a pavilion overlooking the river. It was, therefore, a pendant to the Lord Chancellor's Residence, in the south-east pavilion. However, the priority was to build the new debating chambers, and provide office and library accommodation for members of parliament and peers. Nothing was done about the new residence until 1857, when J.E. Denison was elected Speaker and told Barry that he wished to move his family out of their cramped accommodation provided by the Government--the residence was by then in Carlton House Terrace--into the Palace of Westminster. Work began on fitting out the Speaker's House in 1858 and Denison moved in a year later. He consulted Barry closely about his professional and domestic needs, and the architect altered his plans considerably to accommodate them.