Dr James Jago

Dr James Jago's picture
Dr James Jago
Research Assistant
History of Art Department, University of York

The St Stephen’s project offers a fascinating opportunity to explore the adaption of a medieval building for the purposes of early-modern government. As an architectural historian, with a longstanding interest in the associative power of buildings in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I am especially keen to examine alterations made to St Stephen’s Chapel, to accommodate the Lower House of Parliament. Along with this, I wish to explore the growing inter-play between the Commons as an institution and its architectural setting, across diverse popular printed and visual media. How this culminates in Christopher Wren’s radical re-casting of the Commons Chamber in 1692, and the legacy of this intervention, are also matters of significance.

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