The first House of Lords, used before its appropriation by the Peers as a court of request, was an oblong room approached by a vaulted Gothic corridor, and entered from the south-east corner of Old Palace Yard.
Between the House of Lords and that of Commons was the celebrated Painted Chamber (destroyed in 1834), in which Edward the Confessor drew his last breath, after coming back, as it were, from the grave to utter his awful prophecy of the ruin about to overtake his kingdom.
The old House of Commons was originally the Royal Chapel of St. Stephen (see our article on Westminster Abbey), and was given up to the Lower House of the Legislature in the time of Edward VI. Like the first House of Lords, it was an oblong apartment with an octagonal tower at each corner, and numerous minor turrets and pinnacles.
Adjoining it was the Speaker's House, and on the south side were the residence and gardens of Sir Robert Cotton, original owner of the celebrated Cottonian manuscripts.