‘A cloister of curious workmanship’: the patronage of St. Stephen’s cloisters within the Palace of Westminster in the early sixteenth century

Abstract

Abstract A beautiful set of early sixteenth-century cloisters survive today within the nineteenth-century houses of parliament. Built for St. Stephen’s College, they have survived fire and bombs to become one of just three pre-modern survivals within the modern palace. Unlike the better-known Westminster Hall, the cloisters have received little attention because they have been offices for M.P.s and parliamentary staff. As there are no surviving building accounts, this article uses the institutional context and history that produced the cloisters, the design of the surviving vaulting and possible patronages to reassess a significant ecclesiastical project on the eve of the Reformation.