AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Award: ‘A palace within a Palace’: the Speaker’s House at Westminster, 1794-1834

Applications are invited for a potential AHRC-funded collaborative doctoral award based at the University of York’s Department of History of Art in collaboration with The Houses of Parliament. The three-year award covers fees and an annual maintenance grant.

This PhD project will explore the creation of a lavish Speaker’s House within the Palace of Westminster in 1799-1807, which incorporated the (extant) Tudor cloisters of St Stephen’s College. Arising from AHRC- and Leverhulme-funded research on St Stephen’s Chapel and its Tudor cloisters, this project will provide the first account of this little-known episode in the architectural history of the Palace of Westminster. Based in the History of Art department at York, the PhD will also be interdisciplinary in approach, exploring how institutions shape buildings and how buildings shape institutions. The project will benefit from the ongoing partnership between the University of York and the UK Parliament, including access to the site and specialist advice at Westminster.

In 1794 the Commons Speaker took over from the Exchequer a splendid if decrepit mansion next to the House of Commons, incorporating a jumble of earlier buildings set around the Tudor cloisters of St Stephen’s College. This area was lavishly remodelled, fitted out and furnished by James Wyatt between 1799 and 1807 at enormous expense. After the 1834 fire at Westminster his work was largely swept away and today goes almost unrecognised. This project will provide a virtual reconstruction of the House and an assessment of Wyatt’s work, drawing upon the surviving fabric and archival record. Broader research questions might include the impact of this space on contemporaries, how it fits with Wyatt’s work more broadly, and the extent to which this ‘palace within a Palace’ influenced Barry’s and Pugin’s later designs.

The project will be co-supervised by Professor Anthony Geraghty (University of York) and Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith (Strategic Estates, Houses of Parliament). The supervisory team has a strong record of academic collaboration and the support of early career scholars. The PhD student will be offered working facilities within the Palace, study visits to the cloisters and the opportunity to contribute to broader research on and conservation plans for them, and access to Parliament’s collections including manuscript archives and works of art. Public engagement and impact will be encouraged, for instance public lectures, internal briefings within Parliament, media activities, and /or contributions to educational resources. A parallel PhD project, “St Stephen’s College Buildings, 1593-1794: politics, patronage and space”, will be based in the department of History. This twin collaboration between York and the UK Parliament is intended to bring benefits to both parties in the run up to the high-profile Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster: one of the most iconic, significant and visited buildings in the world.

For full details of the person specification, eligibility criteria and application process, please visit www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/news-and-events/news/2018/ahrc-cdpa-ag/.