Description:
The United Kingdom’s House of Commons chamber is a theatre for confrontational political performance,
speech-making and Parliamentary debate. The space has been subject to considerable architectural change due to historic
events such as the Reformation, the English Civil War, the fire in 1834, and destruction in the Second World War.
Considering its importance in shaping the history of the UK, together with the political speeches, performances and
decisions that have taken place within it, we explore and compare the acoustic characteristics of the House of Commons
Chamber in different contexts. Acoustic results are obtained from measurements carried out in the modern House of
Commons chamber, and the University of Oxford’s Divinity School and Convocation House as alternative spaces used
for Parliamentary debate in the 17th century.
Measurement Team:
Frank Stevens, Joe Rees-Jones and Catriona Cooper
Auralizations by Aglaia Foteinou
Source Sound:
Genelec 8030 using an exponential sine sweep of length 15s
Microphone(s):
Soundfield ST450 microphone
Attribute this work to:
Frank Stevens, Joe Rees-Jones and Catriona Cooper
Auralizations by Aglaia Foteinou (aglaia.foteinou@york.ac.uk)
Damian Murphy, John Cooper