Hall of Honour
This impressive ceremonial hall is used for state occasions, parliamentary
events, and formal processions such as the Speaker’s Parade. The
Hall of Honour is part of the central axis of the Centre Block, joining
Confederation Hall to the Library of Parliament, and providing access
to the main committee rooms.
Like Confederation Hall, the Hall of Honour has received a full Gothic
Revival treatment. The walls are lined with a superimposed double arcade
divided into ten bays, intercepted by the north corridor. The lower level
consists of pointed arches formed by clustered piers and slender shafts
set on pedestals. Behind the upper arcade, there are clerestory windows
of cusped lights. The whole is covered with a fine ribbed vault, resting
on corbels enriched with early English foliage and other traditional motifs.
The vault and walls of the Hall of Honour are sheathed in Tyndall limestone,
enlivened at the lower level with dark green syenite shafts. The polished
marble floor is a field of Missisquoi Boulder Grey marble with interior
borders of Verde Antique serpentine. Missisquoi Black marble was used
for the exterior borders, bases and column pedestals, as well as for the
slender shafts of the upper arcade.
The Hall of Honour was originally intended as a place to display statuary
and bronzes memorializing noteworthy Canadians. This original plan was
subsequently modified, so that today, the walls are decorated with a number
of commemorative reliefs and plaques referring – as incised on the
central column in Confederation Hall – to the first Parliament building,
the fire, Confederation and the Great War.
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