The ‘Gothic Slum’: MPs and St Stephen's Cloister, Westminster, 1548–2017*

Abstract

AbstractThe history of St Stephen's cloister in the Palace of Westminster, a fragile and little‐known Tudor survival, exemplifies the long‐standing tensions between preserving parliament's built heritage and meeting its political and business needs. Adjacent to the old house of commons, it was long part of a grand house for the auditors of the exchequer but came under the control of the commons Speaker in 1794. In the 19th century it was restored twice, by James Wyatt in 1802–8, and after having survived the 1834 fire, by Charles Barry in 1850–2. By now uneasily situated in Charles Barry's vast new palace and no longer needed for domestic purposes, in 1852 it was deployed to meet the business needs of MPs. This use it has retained, even after two of its four walks were destroyed in 1940 and painstakingly reconstructed in 1950–1. The epithet ‘gothic slum’, coined in 1982 by Jack Straw MP for the exquisite lower oratory off the west cloister walk where he found his desk most inconveniently located, encapsulates the long‐standing tensions between the admirers and custodians of the fabric of the cloister and those who require proper space and facilities to discharge their official or parliamentary duties. In tracing the history and uses of the cloister since 1548 this article reveals the long‐standing impact of those unresolved tensions on the cloister's fabric, but suggests that the restoration and renewal programme might prompt a new approach to the use of this fragile and largely unknown survival of Westminster's past.