Photo of the Day

The Houses of Parliament on fire

Friday 16 October 2026

The old Palace of Westminster burned on 16 October 1834.

Painting of a huge fire on a riverbank, orange flames and smoke streaming across the sky and reflected in the river by a bridge, crowds and boats watching — Oil painting · 1835

J.M.W. Turner's painting of the fire that destroyed most of London's old Palace of Westminster. Turner was among the crowds watching that night; sketches of the fire in his sketchbooks became two oil paintings. This version hangs in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Fun facts

The fire started when workmen burned a huge pile of old wooden tally sticks, the Exchequer's obsolete accounting records, in furnaces under the House of Lords. source ↗
Thousands of Londoners watched from the banks and bridges of the Thames. Turner painted the scene more than once. source ↗
Westminster Hall, built in the 1090s, survived and still stands inside today's Parliament. source ↗
The rebuilt palace, designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, gave London the clock tower that houses Big Ben. source ↗

Image: J. M. W. Turner · Cleveland Museum of Art
Licence: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.647