2-888-287 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Plan of the Victoria Tower, 1850. 'Progress of the New Houses of Parliament...the octagonal turrets at the angles...in which are the staircases...On each side, within the walls, and close to the spaces between the windows, are four guide-posts, to which are securely fixed, by bolts, the raising screws...by means of which the main and cross trusses...can be raised...as the masonry is carried up, so is the whole mass of scaffold raised, six feet at a time. The diverging, horizontal, and vertical lines in the plan show the planks which compose the floor of the platform; and handrails are placed, as safeguards to the workmen...On the floor a circular rail is fixed...and on this the hoisting and other travellers run, and by them all the requisite materials can be delivered at any part of the tower...a windlass...worked by a steam-engine...draws up the materials from the works below...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.