The Story of Westminster Hall: 900 Years of Pomp and Circumstance
Schedule
Thu Oct 26 2023 at 06:30 pm
Location
Benn Hall | Rugby, EN
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The Story of Westminster Hall: 900 Years of Pomp and CircumstanceSpeaker - Dr Caroline Shenton
Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it ‘microhistory at its absolute best’. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barry’s War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as "a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful". Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2017, has appeared at the Cheltenham, Hay and Henley literary festivals and on BBC radio and TV. Caroline’s third book, National Treasures, tells the extraordinary and sometimes hilarious stories behind the saving of London’s art and museum collections in World War Two.
The great Anglo-Norman feasting hall created by William the Conqueror’s son, William Rufus, has stood at the heart of the Palace of Westminster for over 900 years. It has played host to royal magnificence, coronation feasts, chivalric games, law courts, government departments, bookstalls, state trials, and the lyings-in-state of Kings, Queens and Prime Ministers. Its famous hammer beam roof has survived the Reformation, Cromwell, fire, war, terrorism, the Blitz and death watch beetle, and remains one of the greatest examples of medieval carpentry in the world. Discover the story of this extraordinary space – for centuries the largest secular building anywhere - through gorgeous images from the Parliamentary Art Collection and insights from the former Director of the Parliamentary Archives.
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Where is it happening?
Benn Hall, Newbold Rd,Rugby, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays: