The Day Parliament Burned Down

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the House of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor, and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their content. No one who watched the burning of the ancient Palace of Westminster would ever forget it.