Written by Richard Ward, Assistant Archives Officer Curators would agree that when an exhibition or display is not dedicated to an upcoming anniversary it allows a greater freedom for manoeuvre. Where brainstorming sessions can embrace lateral thinking rather than a …
This blog was written by Katherine Emery, Assistant Archives Officer. Westminster Hall was originally built during the reign of William II in 1097 but most of the Hall and its iconic roof we know today is from the repairs, redesign, …
Eighty years have passed since the soothing sound of By the Sleeping Lagoon was first heard across our airwaves as the theme tune to the debut episode of BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs. A multitude of MPs and Peers …
The writer F Scott Fitzgerald memorably once said that ‘There are no second acts in American life’. Thankfully Christopher Chataway was British and didn’t adhere one iota to that maxim. Mirroring the standard structure of a theatrical play his biopic …
‘We all have a book in us’ as the saying goes. There are some long-forgotten manuscripts in our collections written by various individuals that unfortunately never had the glory of going to print. A red-ribboned bundle titled In the House …
This blog explores several petitions from early 1621 which tell the story of accusations, evading arrest warrants, eventual arrests, and imprisonment in the infamous Fleet Prison. The two main characters of this tale are Jeffrey Passmore, a wax chandler, otherwise …
What is… Longer than the length of three football fields? 200 years old? And made of animal skin? It's the Longest Act! To give it its proper title, it's the Land Tax Commissioners' Act 1821, which at 348 metres is …
An influx of rookie MPs entered the House of Commons after the post-war 1945 General Election. One of the new intakes was the celebrated playwright, Benn Levy who’d won the Eton & Slough seat for the victorious Labour Party. …
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs National Portrait Gallery To mark South Asian Heritage Month, here’s a profile of Shapurji Saklatvala, a pioneering British Parliamentarian of Indian birth. Prepare to be enlightened about The Man, The Myth, The Marxist. This blog was …
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the coronation of George IV. It took place on 19th July 1821. The coronation ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey, followed by an extravagant coronation banquet held in Westminster Hall. There is a …
