Parliament burned down 183 years ago. Only 24-hour patrols are stopping another fire

Engineers urge immediate work on ‘antiquated’ alarms in £3.5bn restorationIt was, said the Illustrated London News edition of April 1847, “without doubt the finest specimen of gothic civil architecture in Europe: its proportions, arrangement, and decoration being perfect, and worthy of the great nation at whose cost it has been erected”. Queen Victoria was equally approving, writing in her diary that year that “the building is indeed magnificent, in gothic sty