Palace of Westminster

This guide to the Palace of Westminster in London opens on the night of October sixteenth, eighteen thirty-four, when two labourers named Joshua Cross and Patrick Furlong fed centuries of discarded medieval tally sticks into furnaces beneath the House of Lords. You'll hear how the overheated flues sparked a fire that tore through the old palace, and about fire chief James Braidwood's frantic effort to save Westminster Hall by sacrificing the building beside it. Turner and Constable both raced to sketch the blaze from the Thames that night.