Belfast - Stormont Parliament Buildings - Bamforth postcard c.1990s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Stormont Parliament Buildings, Belfast, Northern Ireland
• Publisher:  Bamforth (B119503L)
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Parliament Buildings, commonly known as Stormont because of their location in the Stormont area of Belfast, are the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Northern Ireland Executive. They previously housed the defunct Parliament of Northern Ireland.

The need for a separate parliament building for Northern Ireland emerged with the creation of the Northern Ireland home rule region in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Pending the construction of the new building parliament met in two locations, in Belfast City Hall, where the state opening of the first parliament by King George V took place in on 22 June 1921, and in the nearby Presbyterian Church in Ireland's Assembly's College. In 1922, preparatory work on the chosen site, east of Belfast, began. The original plans for a large domed building with two subsidiary side buildings, housing all three branches of government - legislative, executive and judicial - gave rise to the plural in the official title still used today.^{[citation needed]} Alongside the parliament and ""Ministerial Building"" the site would have been host to the Northern Ireland High Court.^{[citation needed]}

The plans were scrapped following the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and its knock-on effect on the economy of the United Kingdom. Instead, a smaller domeless building designed by Sir Arnold Thornley in the Greek classical style and fronted in Portland stone, was erected on the site.^[1] It was built by Stewart & Partners and opened by Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) on 16 November 1932.^[2]

After the shelving of plans to build a ""Ministerial Building'"", the headquarters of government was in effect Stormont Castle, a baronial castellated house in the grounds and which was originally meant to have been demolished to make way for the ""Ministerial Building"". Stormont Castle served as the official residence of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and was the meeting place for the Northern Ireland cabinet. Another residence, Stormont House served as the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. The reduced plans saw the High Court eventually built in Belfast city centre, and two extra levels being added to Parliament Buildings to serve as extra office space required after the loss of the Ministerial Building.

Two separate chambers were provided in the finished parliamentary complex, the blue-benched rectangular House of Commons of Northern Ireland (green benches as at Westminster being considered inappropriate) and the red-benched smaller rectangular Senate of Northern Ireland. In the main hall, called the Great Hall, a large gold-plated chandelier was hung. It was a gift from King George V and had originally hung in Windsor Castle, where it had been a gift of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The Kaiser's chandelier had been removed from Windsor and placed in storage during World War I. It was never hung in Windsor again.

The painting The Entry of King William into Ireland, a gift from the Dutch government to its Northern Ireland counterpart, was hung in the House of Commons when it opened. However, it was removed after having been defaced by a Scottish preacher, who had travelled from Scotland for that express purpose. The reason for his anger was that the painting also showed the Pope, who had blessed William's enterprise.

The building itself changed little over the years, even as the parliaments meeting inside it did. To camouflage it during World War II, the building's Portland stone was painted with supposedly removable ""paint"" made of bitumen and cow manure. However, after the war, removing the paint proved an enormous difficulty, with the paint having scarred the stonework. It took seven years to remove the ""paint"", and the exterior façade has never regained its original white colour. While most traces of it were removed from the façades (though having done damage that can be seen up close), some of the remains of the paint survive in the inner courtyards and unseen parts of the place.

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=northern ireland

county/ country=antrim

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted