Robert Spankie, who was returned for Finsbury in 1832, had an unusual pre-parliamentary career. Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of

Although first constructed in the 11th century, Westminster Hall still stands tall as an important building within the modern-day Houses of Parliament. As Dr

Last week, the History of Parliament supported a workshop on the history of Westminster Hall.

Legend told that the tower had been funded out of a fine levied on a judge for accepting a bribe. Whether that was so or not, during the reign of Henry VI

This post from our assistant editor Dr Kathryn Rix was first published on the Parliamentary Archives: Inside the Act Room blog, which has many more articles to read on parliamentary history, from t…

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Dr Kathryn Rix looks at the House of Commons chamber in use until the fire of 1834.

Of all the bizarre voting qualifications in operation before 1832 – from potwallopers to burgage holders – one of the most striking was the

This summer, Westminster Hall is home to “A Historic Farewell: Elizabeth II’s Lying-in-State”, an exhibition showcasing the new artworks commissioned by Parliament to commemorate the Lying-in-State of...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a short newsletter about Hansard to mark the digital release of all the volumes from 1809 on https://hansard.parliament.uk. I was also invited onto Matt Chorley’s show on BBC ...

In this new series of blogs on the Palace of Westminster, we look at the three different debating chambers occupied by the MPs who sat in Parliament between 1832 and 1868, beginning with the Common…

In this article Dr Kathryn Rix and Dr Martin Spychal discuss a pivotal vote in the early nineteenth-century Commons – the selection of the Speaker in February 1835. They explore popular reaction to…

In this article Dr Kathryn Rix and Dr Martin Spychal discuss a pivotal vote in the early nineteenth-century Commons – the selection of the Speaker in February 1835. They explore popular reaction to…

Hansard - the official record of what is said in Parliament - originated in the early 19th century. Our Commons 1832-68 project team have previously written

‘A mix between arcane procedure and schoolboy-ish behaviour’? Westminster as told to the History of Parliament’s Oral History Project

At the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on Tuesday 16 June, Dr Juliette Bretan of Cambridge University will be discussing literary depictions of,

Today we take it for granted that parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. In the Victorian era, however, there was no ‘official’ record. In this blog to end Parliament Week, Dr P…

A guest article from the History of Parliament Trust's research staff

A. Dingsdale, '"Generous and lofty sympathies": the Kensington Society, the 1866 women's suffrage petition and the development of mid-Victorian feminism'