3-101-134 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Ashburnham House - The Garden, c1882. Seventeenth-century house on Little Dean's Yard in Westminster, London. 'The wall, forming the northern boundary of the garden, is the wall of the Refectory of Westminster Abbey. The lower arcade with round-headed arches, remains of which are still visible in places, is of the time of Edward the Confessor or of the first Norman Kings, the upper is of the time of Edward III. In this magnificent chamber, extending the whole length of the South Cloister of the Abbey, the Commons not unfrequently assembled. "In the first instance the two Houses met in Westminster Hall, but they parted as early as the eleventh year of Edward I...the Commons, whenever they sate in London, hence-forward met within the precincts of the Abbey. On a few occasions they were assembled within the vast oblong Hall of the Refectory. There, in a chamber only inferior in size and beauty to Westminster Hall, was impeached Piers Gaveston...In the same place they were convened several times during the reigns of Richard II., and Henry V." (Dean Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey, pp.390, 391.)' Description by Alfred Marks. Ashburnham House is now part of Westminster School.