| This thesis examines the incremental program of urban renewal, historic preservation, and architectural intervention that transformed the decrepit medieval palatial precinct at Westminster into a modern civic complex to serve the institutions of national law and government. Sir John Soane (1753--1837), one of Britain's preeminent architects, was the principal designer involved in this process, and the concomitant goal of this thesis is to trace his lifelong involvement with the architecture of the palace and its central role in shaping his identity as an architect of national stature. His works at the palace of the 1820s, principally the Law Courts and the Royal Entrance to the House of Lords, were subsequently destroyed. The spatial and symbolic richness of these lost works are documented here for the first time by synthesizing the copious and complex graphic and archival evidence. The majority of Soane's projects for the palace were not realized, and this thesis also analyzes how his promotion of an architecture of Antique civic magnificence clashed with the patriotically-inspired Gothic revival and posits that the construction of British national identity, together with the fast-paced evolution of the institutions of law, parliament, and the monarchy were the dominant and creative forces in the palace's architectural history during this pivotal period and led to the representational and functional failure of his civic architecture. |
