Re-Creating Advocacy in the C18th Court of King's Bench at Westminster Hall

This is a proof of concept project funded by Royal Holloway's Engaged Humanities Lab in partnership with Parliamentary Archives and The National Archives. The aim is to use the AR visual technology to recreate Britain's highest C18th Court of King's Bench at its original location in Westminster Hall and to use audio visual technology to demonstrate how lawyers' forensic oratory would have sounded within that space. This version will focus on just one famous trial in 1789 for a libel against the House of Commons and use student actors to voice the parts of celebrated defence lawyer Thomas Erskine, judge Lord Kenyon ad the Attorney General. This 3D recreation will therefore demonstrate how effective powerful legal-political rhetoric was during the C18th and illustrate the impact of courtroom spaces on that rhetoric. The recreation will be available to view online for further development as an educational and public history tool by potential partners.