Ahead of tonight’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, we hear from Dr David Kennerley, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. He spoke at our previous session on 19 February about his research into the sound of Chartism… For many decades, historians haven’t really thought about sound. It’s easy to see why, since unlike text, visual images … Continue reading Towards a sonic history of Chartism: Music, sound and politics in mid-nineteenth-century Britain
Ahead of tonight’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, we hear from James Smith, a doctoral candidate at the University of York. He spoke at our previous session on 5 February about his research into a four nations history of Westminster. In 2003, Joanna Innes published her ground-breaking Neale lecture, ‘Legislating for the three kingdoms: how the Westminster parliament legislated for England, … Continue reading Legislating for the United Kingdom’s four nations in the age of reform, 1830-1852
Today’s blog from Glenn McKee follows his paper given at our Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar at the IHR last week. Below Glenn summarizes his paper ‘Standing orders and precedents in the Irish House of Commons in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’… The paper examined how the Irish House of Commons used precedents and standing orders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the seventeenth … Continue reading Standing orders and precedents in the Irish House of Commons in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Ahead of tonight’s special edition of our IHR Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar in aid of UK Parliament Week (‘One person, multiple votes: university constituencies and the electoral system, 1868-1950’) we hear from Dr Sean Kelsey of the University of Buckingham who summarises his paper from our last meeting, which discussed the interplay between Parliament and the General Council of the army in 1647… Whether by design or … Continue reading Crucible of revolution: Parliament, Putney, and the politics of settlement in the Autumn of 1647
At our first ‘Parliaments, Politics & People’ seminar of the new academic year, Dr Hannes Kleineke, Dr Ruth Ahnert, Professor Arthur Burns, and Professor Jane Winters offered some compelling insights into the evolution of digital humanities, its impact on the practice of history, the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, and the management of digital projects. Our first session of the Parliaments, Politics and People seminar for … Continue reading Round-table session: Digital humanities and political history: in memoriam Valerie Cromwell
Today’s blog is from Prof. Robert W Jones, who is professor of eighteenth-century studies in the School of English at the University of Leeds. He is also the principal investigator for the Leverhulme-funded project, ‘The Political Work of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’, which will produce a four-volume, Political Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, for Oxford University Press. Robert gave the below summarized paper about the reporting of … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar Series – Speaking in the Newspaper: Richard Brinsley Sheridan in April 1798
At the ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ Seminar on 7 November 2017 Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt (University of Kent) spoke on ‘The challenges of designing the House of Lords’ nineteenth-century ventilation system – A study of a political design process, 1840-47.’ Here he gives us an overview of his paper…
The earliest set of architectural drawings for the House of Lords were produced in Charles Barry’s office between 1836 and 1839. Starting in 1840, however, the plans had to be significantly modified to accommodate a new scheme for ventilation and climate control proposed by the physician David Boswell Reid. As the requirements of this system had not been anticipated in the earlier stages Barry’s team had to adapt their existing architectural plans. This was a complex, often challenging, process that led to serious delays. The delays were not the result of the immediate technical difficulties alone. The challenges of designing a ventilation system were further accentuated by the difficulties with successfully integrating the specialist skills and knowledge of a doctor within a process involving a large team of engineers, architects and draughtsman. Numerous studies have attributed the delays to insufficient cooperation between Barry and Reid and have dismissed the ventilation scheme as a failed endeavour. In his talk Dr. Schoenefeldt challenged this claim by retracing the evolution of their working relationship and its impact on the final design for the House of Lords, completed in 1847.
Combining the study of archival material, (e.g. original letters, drawings, sketches and diaries) with detailed building surveys inside the House of Lords, his research has allowed him to reconstruct the House of Lords’s original ventilation system and to uncover the extent of Barry and Reid’s respective contributions to its development. The original letters reveal that the pressure to reduce the risk of further delays, drove Barry and the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to trial new, more collaborative modes of working. These trials were based on the belief that Reid’s relative inexperience with engineering and architectural design could be compensated through a closer partnership between him and Barry’s team. Members of the House of Lords were also directly involved in the process of resolving the problems. The impact of Reid’s involvement on the design process became the subject of extensive reviews, conducted by several Select Committees and independent expert panels appointed by the Lords between 1843 and 1846. Neither the nature of the practical design challenges of incorporating the system within the architectural plans nor the role of Barry’s team in assisting in its development, have been investigated by historians in any depth before. This, however, is critical to fully understand the inherently political nature of the design process.
Parliamentary Archives PAR/4/24
The talk is based on research conducted in conjunction with his current project within the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme, which is entitled ‘Between Heritage and Sustainability – Restoring the Palace of Westminster’s nineteenth-.century ventilation system‘ and is funded through a grant from the AHRC. Henrik’s recent publications include ‘ The Lost (First) Chamber of the House of Commons’, AA files, 72 (June 2016), pp. 161-173.
HS
Join us tonight for our first seminar of the new term: Sonia Tycko of Harvard University will speak on ‘The politics of impressment, 1639-41: a Gloucestershire microhistory’. Full details here.
