Another night to remember

At 6 o’clock on the evening of 16 October 1834 the old House of Lords burst into flames. By 3 a.m. most of the Palace of Westminster was a burned-out wreck. The Lords and the Commons, the Law Courts and the ramshackle mess of medieval offices, kitchens and houses which made up the Palace had gone up in smoke. Only Westminster Hall remained intact. It had taken roughly 500 minutes to torch over 500 years of English history. This disaster forms the subject of Caroline Shenton’s book.

The crowd hailed the fire as retribution for the cruel Poor Law Act of 1834. Victims of social care cuts perhaps feel just as incendiary about parliament today. But this was no Guy Fawkes plot, and there was no hint of arson. The fire was caused by a cockup: as Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, said, it was ‘one of the greatest instances of stupidity on record’.