early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential ("privy") area of the palace. In 1534 Henry VIII acquired York Place from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a powerful minister who had lost the King's favour. Renaming it the Palace of Whitehall, Henry used it as his principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various royal law courts. Being originally a royal residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses. Important state ceremonies took place in the Painted Chamber – originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III (). In 1801 the Upper House moved into the larger White Chamber (also known as the Lesser Hall), which had housed the Court of Requests; the expansion of the peerage by King George III during the first ministry (1783–1801) of William Pitt the Younger, along with the imminent Act of Union with Ireland, necessitated the move, as the original chamber could not accommodate the increased number of peers. The House of Commons, which did not have a chamber of its own, sometimes held its debates in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. The Commons acquired a permanent home at the Palace in St Stephen's Chapel, the former chapel of the royal palace, during the reign of Edward VI (). In 1547 the building became available for the Commons' use following the disbanding of St Stephen's College. Alterations were made to St Stephen's Chapel over the following three centuries for the convenience of the lower House, gradually destroying, or covering up, its original mediaeval appearance. A major renovation project undertaken by Christopher Wren in the late-17th century completely redesigned the building's interior. The Palace of Westminster as a whole underwent significant alterations from the 18th century onwards, as Parliament struggled to carry out its business in the limited available space of ageing buildings. Calls for an entirely new palace went unheeded – instead more buildings of varying quality and style were added. A new west façade, known as the Stone Building, facing onto St Margaret's Street, was designed by John Vardy and built in the Palladian style between 1755 and 1770, providing more space for document storage and for committee rooms. The House of Commons and House of Lords Engrossing Office of Henry (Robert) Gunnell (1724–1794) and