On the night of the 16th October, 1834, the building in which the Houses of Parliament met was burnt down to such an extent that a totally new structure was required, though luckily Westminster Hall escaped.
Inheritor of the memories of its predecessor, the New Palace of Westminster, whilst equal to it in interest, is probably superior in beauty.
A typical example of the renewed Gothic style introduced at the latter end of the eighteenth century, the Houses of Parliament were built after the designs of Sir Charles Barry, an architect of the highest skill and ability, but whose chief works before this appointment had been in the Renaissance style.
The details of the ornament were largely designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, a man imbued with the very spirit of medieval art, whose efforts were ably seconded by the sculptor, John Thomas, one of the founders of the modern English school of carvers in stone, and by Messrs. Hardman, Crane, Minton, and a host of other artists and artificers, to whom the execution of the ornamental work was confided.
Keenly and hostilely as the modern Houses of Parliament have been criticised, they remain the finest outcome of the Gothic revival, not only in England, but in all Europe. The beauty of the skyline is unique amongst London buildings, and, seen from the river or the Albert Embankment, as in our illustration, its towers, roofs, and pinnacles form, with those of the abbey, a most magnificent group of buildings.