Ventilator House of Commons

[stanmapstone]

In Reply to
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,204495.0.html

I said The ventilator was the former Ladies' Gallery in the House of Commons. So he was probaly an attendant there.
However after further research I realise that is not correct. The Ventilator was the Ladies' Gallery, but this was in the old House of Commons, which was destroyed by fire in 1834. When it was rebuilt by Sir Charles Barry, it incorporated a heating and ventilation system desgned by Dr. David Boswell Reid. So the person in the 1881 Census would have been employed in operating that system.
See http://www.hevac-heritage.org/landmark_buildings/public_buildings/public_buildings.htm
Stan