2-914-068 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The New Houses of Parliament - Members' Staircase, House of Commons, 1854. Interior of the Palace of Westminster, London, designed in Victorian Gothic style by Augustus Pugin. 'Clustered columns in the centre, and on each side, support a stone roof, most elaborately groined; the intersections of the groining having bosses of infinite variety of character and detail. The windows...are filled with gorgeous stained glass; and, at night, the Staircase is lighted by lanterns pendent from the centres of the intersecting arches of the roof...Panelling and quatre-foils fill the walls on the sides of the stairs...The landings are laid with encaustic tiles of different designs, surrounded by alleys of black marble. Though not of large dimensions, we think there are few portions of the New Palace of Westminster more beautiful than this Staircase'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.