Substantial parts of this surround to Cloister Court in the Houses of Parliament are the stonework executed between 1526 and 1529. That work replaced the original cloister built in the 14th century for the use of the members of the College of Saint Stephen. The 16th century reconstruction was under the direction of the last Dean of the College just a few years before Henry VIII's reformation dissolved that institution. Sir Charles Barry made considerable efforts to include these cloisters in their full glory into his new Palace of Westminster. His repair and restoration work to the damage inflicted by the fire of 1834 and that by Gilbert Scott following the damage done in 1941 were each intended to recreate the structure without alteration. The window tracery and fan vaulting is comparable to the finest of the time of which the nearby Henry VII Chapel in the Abbey is another example. The cloister had provided access for the Commons from New Palace Yard, through Westminster Hall, to the Lobby and the main chamber in Saint Stephen's Chapel which was their meeting place between 1547 and 1834. An element of the Cloister is the Oratory or Chapter House jutting into the court from the centre of the western range. The Oratory's upper floor is one of several places where signatories of the death warrant of Charles II may have inscribed their claim to fame - the warrant is one of the most important documents that by chance survived the 1834 fire. The existence of the cloister and the court derives from the collegiate nature of the institution created by Edward III (1312-77) in 1368. This meant that a body of men were expected, in a defined hierarchy, to be involved with the church in specified duties. There had to be buildings to accommodate them domestically and in their periods of reflection. The college included the Dean at the head, twelve canons, vicars, choristers and a verger. So, as well as these cloisters, which are now occupied by office accommodation for MP's, there was a range of houses adjacent to their eastern wing to house the vicars. On a plan of the pre-reformation palace drawn from archaeological evidence these vicars' houses are outside the line of the main wall running south from the base of the Water Gate to the cloisters. That places them only one or two feet from the approximate line of the river bank as drawn on that plan. Beside the northern range of the cloister there was other domestic accommodation possibly for the more senior clergy. Both that and the vicars houses later became part of the home and the state reception rooms of the Speaker of the Commons. Finally, for the regulation of the college members' activities a belfry in a tower at the north end of the west wing of the cloister was a means to summon them to services in the chapel.

O/S Co-ords:3025.7950
Source(s):

Westminster Palace and Parliament