2-979-100 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The New Houses of Parliament - the Peers' Private Entrance, 1857. 'Daylight is admitted by four windows from Old Palace-yard front...The floor is all of encaustic tiles, of the same pattern as that on the Peers' Staircase. In this room the members of the House of Lords will deposit their cloaks and overcoats. Racks of brass, gilt...will be placed at intervals along the room. We agree with the art-critic in the "Companion to the Almanack," that this lobby or entrance-room "is an excellent example of the artistic treatment of a low room so as to negative what would otherwise be the defiency [sic] of height. The effect of the piers and arches which are introduced for this end, and the grouping of the wall decorations and chimney-piece, cannot be too highly praised. Few architects have shown the same artistic power as Sir Charles Barry...".' From "Illustrated London News", 1857.