Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Burning of Parliament

Burning of Parliament

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/October 16, 2015 by — Chris Woodrich (talk) 01:00, 30 September 2015 (UTC)



On 16 October 1834 a massive fire largely destroyed the Palace of Westminster, the medieval royal palace used as the home of the British parliament. The conflagration was caused by the burning of small wooden tally sticks that had been used as part of the accounting procedures of the Exchequer until 1826, which were disposed of in a careless manner in the two furnaces under the House of Lords. The blaze caused a chimney fire in the two flues that ran under the floor of the Lords' chamber and up through the walls before it spread rapidly throughout the complex. The fire lasted for most of the night and developed into the biggest conflagration to occur in London between the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz of the Second World War; massive crowds were attracted to the spectacle. By the following morning a large part of the palace was destroyed, although the actions of the London Fire Engine Establishment ensured that Westminster Hall and a few other parts of the old Houses of Parliament survived. In 1836 a competition for designs for a new palace was won by Charles Barry who, in collaboration with Augustus Pugin, incorporated the surviving buildings into the new complex.
 * Most recent similar article(s): No idea what would class as really close for this! Castell Coch on 13 August was the closest architecture (but that's not really right); Great Stink on 23 June was the closest London history/building article
 * Main editors: SchroCat
 * Promoted: 21 June 2015
 * Reasons for nomination: 181st anniversary
 * Support as nominator. SchroCat (talk) 04:34, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Schro, could you rework the blurb so that the first link is to the FA? Otherwise the automated software that updates various pages will have trouble. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 23:36, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Doh! now done. - SchroCat (talk) 07:26, 4 September 2015 (UTC)