October 1834 – The fire that destroyed Parliament
19 October 2012 (updated on 19 October 2012)
To mark the anniversary of the fire that destroyed the Houses of Parliament in October 1834, Caroline Shenton, Director of the Parliamentary Archives, explores images relating to the event from the Parliamentary Art Collection.
Caroline Shenton is Director of the Parliamentary Archives and is also a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.
Previously a senior archivist at the National Archives, when she moved to the Parliamentary Archives in 1999 Caroline discovered that most of the historic records of the House of Commons had been destroyed in the fire of 1834, and vowed to find out more.
She started to research it in her spare time and, thirteen years later, her book The Day Parliament Burned Down (OUP, 2012) is the result. See the UK Parliament Flickr Channel for her selection of images relating to the fire from the Parliamentary Art Collection.