Sketch of the Interior of St. Stephens, As it Now Stands c. 1802

James Gillray, the great English caricaturist, made this print of St. Stephen’s Chapel, the usual meeting place of the House of Commons, sometime around the turn of the 19th century. Gillray was a master of satire whose prints were enormously popular, often skewering the leading political figures of his day. Here, he shows us the interior of the House of Commons during a parliamentary debate, with members of parliament crowded together in a tight space, listening to a speaker at the center, and the Speaker of the House presiding from his chair. Gillray’s print is full of cultural and historical associations. Britain was a constitutional monarchy, and Parliament was the supreme legislative body. St. Stephen’s Chapel was the place where the leading political figures debated the issues of the day, such as war with France. The print comments on the social structures of its own time, and it’s self-consciously progressive. To understand Gillray better, one might explore his other prints and the political history of England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.