The “Immured Standards” in the House of Commons

Abstract

AN interesting ceremony recently took place in the House of Commons, when the copies of the Imperial Yard and Pound which normally rest within the wall of the staircase leading up to the committee rooms, were replaced in their recess, and re-immured by cementing in place the stone slab covering the opening. These “immured standards,” officially described as “Parliamentary Copies No. 4,” constitute one of the four original sets of copies of the present primary standards of the yard and pound, and were constructed simultaneously with them in 1844–45, with the view of providing a ready means of replacement, should the originals at any time be lost or destroyed. Such a catastrophe occurred in 1834, when the Houses of Parliament were burnt down, the then existing standards being destroyed in the fire. The other sets of Parliamentary Copies were placed, and still remain, in the custody of the Royal Mint, the Royal Society, and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. At a later date, a fifth set was provided for the Board of Trade, to obviate the necessity for using the primaries in important comparisons, as had been the practice hitherto.