houses of parliament in the time of James i.
Index. Parliament Houses in the time of James I.
| a. The House of Lords. b. Chamber under the House of Lords, called "Guy Faukes' Cellar." c. The Prince's Chamber. d. The Painted Chamber. e. The "White Hall" or Court of Requests. f. The House of Commons (formerly St. Stephen's Chapel). g. Westminster Hall. h. St. Stephen's Cloisters, converted into houses for the Tellers of the Exchequer. i. Garden of the Old Palace (afterwards called "Cotton Garden"). j. House built on the site of the Chapel of "Our Lady of the Pew" (called later "Cotton House"). k k k. Houses built upon ruins of the walls of the Old Palace. | l. Vault under the Painted Chamber. m. Yard or Court into which a doorway opened from Guy Faukes' Cellar. n. Passage leading from the same Yard or Court into Parliament Place. o. Parliament Place. p. Parliament Stairs (formerly called "The Queen's Bridge"). q q. The River Thames. r. Old Palace Yard. s. Westminster Abbey. t. St. Margaret's Church. u v w. Buildings of the Old Palace, called "Heaven" (or "Paradise"), "Hell," and "Purgatory." x. New Palace Yard. y. Bell Tower of St. Stephen's. z. The Speaker's Garden. |
The old House of Lords[129] was a chamber occupying the first floor of a building which stood about fifty yards from the left bank of the Thames, to which it was parallel, the stream at this point running almost due north. Beneath the Peers' Chamber, on the ground floor, was a large room, which plays an important part in our history. This had originally served as the palace kitchen,[130] and though commonly described as a "cellar" or a "vault" was in reality neither, for it stood on the level of the ground outside, and had a flat ceiling, formed by the beams which supported the flooring of the Lords' apartment above.[131] It ran beneath the said Peers' Chamber from end to end, and measured 77 feet in length, by 24 feet 4 inches in width.
At either end, the building abutted upon another running transversely to it; that on the north being the "Painted Chamber," probably erected by Edward the Confessor, and that on the south the "Prince's Chamber," assigned by its architectural features to the reign of Henry III. The former served as a place of conference for Lords and Commons,[132] the latter as the robing-room of the Lords. The royal throne stood at the south end of the House, near the Prince's Chamber.