Westminster, 1863

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John MacVicar Anderson (1835-1915) was principally an architect but he also painted topographical views, usually of London, and exhibited his work on six occasions at the Royal Academy between 1856 and 1896.
Anderson has bathed his view of Westminster in a romantic evening glow which, by casting areas of the picture into deep shadow, serves to highlight the architectural details of his subject as well as to emphasise the historic grandeur of Westminster Abbey and the symbolic aspect of the new Houses of Parliament. The destruction by fire of the old Lords and Commons in 1832 had been seen as a portentous omen of change and in the competition to find a design for the new Houses it was stipulated that it should be 'Gothic or Elizabethan’ in style, to better commemorate the long history of English democracy from the signing of Magna Carta in 1215. Sir Charles Barry won the competition but his design was so consistently hampered by red tape and the interference of rigid and incompetent committees that, although Queen Victoria opened the first parliament in 1852, the building was not finally completed until after his death in 1860. The finished building was frequently criticised as well as praised but few failed to see it as a powerful symbol of the English constitution and of English civil and political rights. The picture also shows the construction of the new Westminster Bridge, designed by Thomas Page, which was in progress between 1856 and 1862. It replaced an eighteenth century bridge built by Charles Labelye which for many years had been the only bridge,other than London Bridge, to span the Thames.

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