The Red House – Parliament

Re-Opening of the Red House

In 2011 the Parliament left the Red House and moved to temporary accommodation in Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre, in order to allow for repair of the entire building for the exclusive use of the Parliament. On Friday 24th January, 2020 the Red House was re-opened by..Read More

Weather Vane

With the re-election of the People’s National Movement in 1992, the Red House became, once again, the center of controversy when a decision was taken to remove the resident sea serpent atop the building in order to replace it with a dove bearing an olive branch in its beak. The..Read More

Eternal Flame

As a temporary measure, sittings of both the Lower and Upper Houses (two each) were held at the Auditorium of the Central Bank, but with the opening of the Fifth Session of the Third Parliament on November 5, 1990, sittings were once again held in the Red House, not at..Read More

Port-of-Spain was destroyed by fire

In the year 1808, Port-of-Spain was destroyed by fire. At that time, it was a sprawling town of wood and shingle, which had grown tremendously during the previous twenty-five years. As a result of this disastrous fire, Government brought in legislation with regard to building regulations, and for this reason..Read More

THE 1990 COUP AND AFTER

On Friday July 27, 1990 at 6:05 p.m., armed gunmen stormed the Parliament Chamber where the House of Representatives was in session, taking the then Prime Minister, eight of his Cabinet Ministers and six other Members of Parliament hostage. The Red House suffered gravely from this invasion since the building..Read More

REBUILDING

The work of rebuilding it began the following year, and the Red House, as we know it today, was erected on the same site. It was opened to the public on the 4th February, 1907, by Governor, Sir H.M. Jackson. The building was designed and built by D. M. Hahn,..Read More

THE 1903 FIRE

In 1897, as Trinidad was preparing to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the buildings were given a coat of red paint, and the public promptly referred to them thereafter as the Red House. This direct ancestor of our present Red House was burnt to the ground on the..Read More

Foundation Laid

On the 15th February, 1844 the Governor, Sir Henry McLeod, laid the foundation stone for a new block of government buildings, on a site on the west side of Brunswick Square (now Woodford Square). The land belonged to a group of eight persons. The architect was Mr. Richard Bridgens, Superintendent..Read More

Category: The Red House