3-021-088 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Cloister in front of the Speaker's House, New Palace-Yard, Westminster, [London], 1868. 'When this subway is completed, members of Parliament...coming by the railway and the embankment will be able to enter the Palace by means of a covered way extending the whole distance, and almost on a level. They will thus avoid the necessity of ascending to Bridge-street and descending again. The external design...is made to correspond with the existing archways and buttresses to the members' private entrance, with which it is joined, at the south-east corner of the yard. Two of the archways form carriage entrances to the Speaker's court, and these, with the archway in front of the Clock Tower, are...distinguished by their details from the rest of the arches...The cloister is rather higher than the upper part of Bridge-street,...and thus serves to mask the difference of level...Each bay of the cloister has a groined roof, with a circular aperture in the middle of each groin, covered by a sheet of glass. The groining of the bay next to Westminster Bridge is square, with diagonal ribs filled with perforated tracery...The exterior is entirely of Portland stone. The works were contracted for by Mr. W. Field, and the carving was executed by Mr. T. Earp'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.