Saint Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster: Visual & Political Culture, 1292 -1941.

Posted on 3 October 2013

The University of York and the Institute of Historical Research are delighted to announce the start of a major new project in collaboration with the Palace of Westminster. ‘Saint Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster: Visual and Political Culture, 1292-1941’, is funded by the AHRC and brings together a team of historians and art historians to research a building which was successively a royal chapel, the House of Commons, and the ceremonial entry-way to Parliament.

Although not widely known today, St Stephen’s was one of the most lavishly conceived and decorated architectural spaces in Northern Europe. It was a building central to English royal and political life for centuries, witnessing the changes of the Reformation, the Civil War and Restoration, and the evolution of Parliamentary democracy. Founded by Edward I in deliberate imitation of Louis IX’s Sainte-Chappelle in Paris, the chapel was completed in 1366 under his grandson Edward III, who endowed the attached College of Canons. Dissolved at the Reformation, the chapel became the House of Commons’ permanent home under Edward VI. St Stephen’s was radically recast by Christopher Wren in the seventeenth century, although beneath this work much of its medieval richness survived to be recorded by Georgian antiquarians. After the Palace of Westminster was consumed by fire in 1834, the crypt of St Stephen’s was incorporated into the new buildings as a place of worship. Above this was created a public ceremonial entranceway to the new Commons chamber, linking the neo-Gothic Palace to the medieval Westminster Hall.

Principal Investigator Dr John Cooper explains: ‘This is an unprecedented opportunity to explore the significance of a space which has been at the heart of public life since the thirteenth century. The welcome from the modern-day Palace of Westminster has been wonderful.’

The research will feed into a digital reconstruction of St Stephen’s in its successive roles, modelled by the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, based at the University of York. Involved in this project within the History of Art department are Dr Tim Ayers as a Co-Investigator for the medieval period, Dr James Jago as Post-doctoral researcher on the early-modern period and PhD candidate James Hillson, who will explore St Stephen’s medieval appearance. The project runs for three years from this October. Its findings will be published in 2015 at a colloquium and exhibition, followed by a major international conference planned for 2016.