Tour inside Center block, one of the antechambers.

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Monument to Lieut Colonel George Harold Baer

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inside Center block, one of the antechambers.

May 2010, Photo 1243

Ceiling

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inside Center block, one of the antechambers.

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Detail

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inside Center block, one of the antechambers.

May 2010, Photo 1248

inside Center block, one of the antechambers.

May 2010, Photo 1249

inside Center block, one of the antechambers.

May 2010, Photo 1254

House of Commons Chamber door

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House of Commons Chamber

The western wing of the building contains the House of Commons chamber, along with its antechamber and lobbies for the government and opposition, on the east and west sides of the main commons space, the doors to which are all of white oak trimmed with hand-wrought iron.

The chamber is 21 metres long, 16 metres wide, has seats for 320 members of parliament and 580 persons in the upper gallery that runs around the second level of the room. The overall colour scheme is in green, reflecting the colour used in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since at least 1663, and visible in the carpeting, bench upholstery, draperies, paint within the gilded honeycomb cork plaster work of the cove, and the stretched linen canvas over the ceiling. That canvas, sitting 14.7 m above the commons floor, and designed in 1920 by the New York decorating firm Mack, Jenney and Tyler, is painted with the heraldic symbols of the Canadian, provincial, and territorial coats of arms, with medallions at the intersections of diagonal stencilled bands in an argyle pattern. Running below this, and above the cove, is a continuous gold leaf cornice created in 1919 by Enrico Filiberto Cerracchio, which displays a row of gilt figures, broken at the peak of each pointed arch by cherubs holding a cartouche, and behind all of which runs a painted grapevine with Tudor roses.

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House of Commons Chamber

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House of Commons Chamber

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House of Commons Chamber

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House of Commons Chamber, Speaker's chair

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Hall of Honour

Extending from Confederation Hall is the Centre Block's north to south axis, running between the Library of Parliament and the Peace Tower, and along which sits the Hall of Honour, which serves as the route of the parades for both speakers of parliament, as well as where the lying in state segment of some state funerals takes place. It is a long, rib vaulted space of Tyndall limestone divided into five bays by superimposed double arcades of lancet arches atop clustered columns on pedestals. These bays are subdivided in half by single-story pointed arches on dark green syenite pillars, above which sit clerestory windows of cusped lights segmented by Missisquoi Black marble posts, though only those on the east of the hall are windows, while the others are blind. Running the length of the hall is a ribbed vault ceiling rising to bosses carved with Tudor roses and fleur-de-lis, and which rests on corbels carved into early English foilage and other customary symbols.

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Hall of Honour

The hall is bisected by small, vaulted corridors, the east one leading to a committee room, and the west to the old reading room; the latter is known as the Correspondents' Entrance, and is lined with bosses and label stops sculpted by Cléophas Soucy between 1949 and 1950 into the visages of ten notable parliamentary correspondents: Charles Bishop, Henri Bourassa, John Wesley Dafoe, Joseph Howe, Grattan O'Leary, Frank Oliver, John Ross Robertson, Philip Dansken Ross, Joseph Israël Tarte, and Robert S. White. The north end of the hall is crossed on both levels by the Centre Block's north corridor, with an overlooking gallery lined by iron railings by Paul Beau.

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Hall of Honour

The Hall of Honour was intended to be a gallery where statues of notable Canadians would be arranged in the niches along each side. That plan was later abandoned, however, in favour of a more general purpose of commemorating the 1916 fire, as well as honouring those who participated in the Great War. The sculptures, however, remain incomplete; only the north end, closest to the Library of Parliament, has completed carvings. The largest of these stone sculptures is a low relief memorial to nursing in Canada, depicting those care-givers who participated in World War I, while another work, Canada Remembers, pays tribute to those who were involved in the Second World War. Two other pieces mark the efforts of early nation-building, such as that donated by Canadians living in the United States, and which celebrates the 60th anniversary of Confederation.

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inside Center block, Painting on wall

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inside Center block

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inside Center block, Painting on wall

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Senate Chamber

In the east wing of the Centre Block is the Senate chamber, in which are the thrones for the Canadian monarch and her consort, or for the federal viceroy and his or her consort, and from which either the sovereign or the Governor General gives the Speech from the Throne, and grants Royal Assent to bills passed by parliament. The senators themselves sit in the chamber, arranged so that those belonging to the governing party are to the right of the Speaker of the Senate, and the opposition to the Speaker's left.

The overall colour in the Senate chamber is red, seen in the upholstery, carpeting, and draperies, and reflecting the colour scheme of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom; red was a more royal colour, associated with the crown and hereditary peers. Capping the room is a gilt ceiling with deep octagonal coffers, each filled with heraldic symbols, including maple leafs, fleur-de-lis, lions rampant, clàrsach, Welsh Dragons, and lions passant. This plane rests on six pairs and four single pilasters, each of which is capped by a caryatid, and between which are clerestory windows. Below the windows is a continuous architrave, broken only by baldachins at the base of each of the above pilasters.

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Senate Chamber

On the east and west walls of the chamber are eight murals depicting scenes from the First World War; painted in between 1916 and 1920, they were originally part of the more than 1,000 piece Canadian War Memorials Fund, founded by The Lord Beaverbrook, and were intended to hang in a specific memorial structure. But the project never eventuated, and the works were stored at the National Gallery of Canada, until, in 1921, parliament requested some of the collection's oil paintings on loan for display in the Centre Block, and the murals have remained in the Senate chamber ever since.

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Senate Chamber

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Senate Chamber

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Confederation Hall

The Centre Block is arranged symmetrically around Confederation Hall, located immediately inside the main entrance. It is an octagonal chamber, the perimeter of which is divided by limestone clustered columns into eight bays of two different sizes, themselves subdivided by dark green syenite pillars, behind which runs a vaulted ambulatory that supports the upper gallery. The arcaded arches are topped by gables sculpted to commemorate the confederated nature of Canada, and they support one side of the hall's fan vaulted ceiling with carved bosses, while the other side rests on a single column in the centre of the room. This column is borne on a stone carved with an image of Neptune amongst sea lions and fish in a mythical sea, and which was placed at noon on 2 July 1917, to mark the 50th anniversary of Confederation.

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Confederation Hall

Around the central column is an inlaid marble floor with a 16 point windrose of Verde Antique serpentine from Roxbury, Vermont, and a swirl pattern of green serpentine from the Greek island of Tinos, embedded in Missisquoi Boulder Grey marble, from Philipsburg, Quebec, which represents the essential element of water, and alluding to Canada's motto: A Mari Usque Ad Mare (From Sea to Sea). The inner and outer circles of the floor are made of a Missisquoi Black marble from Philipsburg, Quebec, and white travertine from Italy, as well as Verde Antique serpentine separated by a band of Missisquoi Boulder Grey marble.

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Confederation Hall

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Confederation Hall

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