The Advisory Commission on Works of Art commissioned four tapestries for Portcullis House, the new parliamentary building in London. Philip Sanderson and Pat Taylor submitted and had approved two designs each on the themes Parliament (Sanderson) and Democracy (Taylor), subjects relevant to the permanent collection of works of art at the House of Commons.

Parliament I and II
Philip Sanderson

Parliament I uses landscape as a starting point to create a sense of open space within a committee room. Motifs taken from tithe and Ordnance Survey maps provide further layers of information to illustrate the relationship between Parliament, the land and its population. The tapestry hangs at one end of the Boothroyd conference room at Portcullis House.

Parliament II, which hangs on the opposite wall, is a depiction of the view from the hill featured in Parliament I, but this time overlaid with the seating plan of the conference room.

Democracy I and II
Pat Taylor

Both Taylor's designs are definitions of democracy, illustrated by text, numbers, dates and photographic source material. These tapestries hang in the Thatcher conference room.

She wrote to MPs asking them to write their definition of democracy on a postcard, and the predominant themes and words were incorporated in Democracy I.

Weaving on the first two in the series began in January 2000 and was completed in November 2000. The next two were started in December 2000 and took 11 months to complete.

Weavers on these tapestries were: Ananda Armstrong-King, Pat Bloor, Penny Bush, Caron Penney, Louise Martin, Philip Sanderson, Katharine Swailes, Tricia Warman and Louise Trotter.