Westminster bubble
Had enough of our MPs? Look at these £175m plans for their stand-in home while Parliament is refurbished...
FOr generations, MPs have spoken of the ‘Westminster bubble’. Soon, they could be going to work in a real one. For, after hundreds of years on the banks of the River Thames, MPs and peers are considering dramatic plans to temporarily relocate the Mother of Parliaments to a sort of lozengeshaped greenhouse about half a mile away.
Under the intriguing scheme, a 151 metrelong structure, containing exact replicas of the Lords and Commons debating chambers, would be built on Horse Guards Parade, the arena behind downing Street currently used for Trooping the Colour.
It would then be occupied for between six and seven years, while the crumbling Palace of Westminster is evacuated for major restoration works to take place.
The proposal is the brainchild of Norman Foster, the famous architect behind such existing London landmarks as 30 St Mary Axe (the socalled ‘Gherkin’), Wembley Stadium and the ‘wobbly bridge’ built across the Thames near the Tate Modern gallery to celebrate the Millennium.
He is understood to have formally pitched it to a committee overseeing the Palace of Westminster’s renovation in a meeting held at his architectural firm’s London office late last month.
According to detailed plans unveiled at the meeting, Foster’s socalled ‘Temporary Parliament’ will centre on elaborate copies of each of the historic building’s two 31metre debating chambers, along with not just their adjoining lobbies, but also the imposing central lobby in which MPs and peers must rub shoulders with the public.
‘The existing Palace is one of the world’s most famous buildings, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and recreating it will send out a strong message of confidence in British democracy, and our place in the world, at a time when it feels under attack,’ says a source who was at the event. ‘ It will also become a great tourist attraction and provide a terrific legacy.’
Under Lord Foster’s plan, every part of the replica will be exactly the same size as the Victorian original: 13.5 sq m for the new Lords lobby and 15 sq m for the Commons one. The layout of the seats in each chamber will also be identical, while both interiors will be four storeys high.
Intriguingly, almost all the internal features, from the tiled floors to the woodpanelled walls and Gothic windows of the existing Palace, will be painstakingly recreated in order to help maintain historical traditions and customs, along with a feeling of familiarity for lawmakers.
So Detailed will Lord Foster’s architectural copy be that he even intends to hire craftsmen who will ensure that the leather benches on which MPs and peers sit have exactly the same amount of wear and tear in his temporary facility as they do in the existing one.
‘He wants it to feel the same, right down to the cracks in the leather,’ said the source.
Surrounding Lord Foster’s historical replica of Westminster’s political heart, which will take some 18 months to build, will be a more modern structure, spanning five floors and made largely from prefabricated timber.
Its upper floors will hold offices, committee rooms and media facilities with views through a glass panel to the debating chamber. The entire ground floor, meanwhile, will be given over to 2,300 sq m of catering facilities, replacing the eight bars and 15 cafeterias and restaurants in the current Palace.
on top will be an indoor garden, which can be used as a ‘flexible space’ for corporate events, exhibitions and presentations, helping to earn back some of the £125£175 million that the temporary building will cost to build.
It will boast views of Big Ben, the London eye, Nelson’s Column and Buckingham Palace.
enclosing the whole thing, meanwhile, will be a striking glass ‘envelope’ or roof, made up of thousands of bombproof triangular panels, each side of which will measure roughly 6ft.
Some will be clear, to let in sunlight, and others ‘ solid’. A selection will be covered with solar panels, providing renewable energy to the building.
A ‘ ring of steel’ will surround the building, preventing vehicles and people from gaining access without security clearance.
When the division bell rings to indicate a parliamentary vote, MPs and peers will be able to access the new facility from their offices in under eight minutes (as tradition dictates), by using underground tunnels that already exist under Whitehall or a temporary walkway above Parliament Street that will bridge the roof of Portcullis House with that of HM Treasury on the opposite side.
Foster’s Westminster ‘bubble’ is designed to remain in situ next to St James’s Park while urgent works are carried out on the Palace of Westminster.
The historic building, regarded as one of the finest examples of Victorian Neogothic architecture, is in a state of extreme disrepair, with many parts having barely been renovated since the 19th century, when it was built by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin, after most of the medieval Palace was destroyed by fire in 1834. It took over three decades to complete. Since then, none of the heating, ventilation, water, drainage or electrical systems has undergone a major renovation. Asbestos is present throughout and pollution is causing major decay to the limestone facade, parts of which are in danger of collapsing.
Most of the building’s 4,000 windows do not close properly, letting heat out and cold and water in, while the castiron roof is leaking to such an extent a Commons debate was suspended last week.
The Palace’s sewage system is 150 years old, while doddery electrics are causing a number of minor fires each year, mostly in the basement. In a debate on refurbishment works, Labour MP Kevin Barron last year noted there was so much metal holding up the place that it looked like the coal mine he used to work in.
With this in mind, MPs and peers decided last spring to evacuate the entire building in the early 2020s to allow for a full refurbishment, estimated to cost £4 billion.
Since then, parliamentarians have been debating where exactly to relocate. Some favoured upping sticks to a provincial city, such as Birmingham or Coventry. others have floated the idea of moving to other historic buildings. In a Lords debate last year, Labour’s Meghnad desai suggested moving to Buckingham Palace, as ‘it’s the only building large enough’. Lord Inglewood proposed the Palace of Versailles on the basis ‘I live further from London than Paris’.
After a time, though, they settled on a less drastic plan to move into existing buildings nearby — peers were to relocate to the Queen elizabeth II Conference Centre opposite Westminster Abbey, while a new debating chamber for MPs was to be created at Richmond House, a civil service building next to the Cenotaph on Whitehall.
But this scheme — which involved separating the two parliamentary chambers for the first time in 500 years — proved controversial. This
is because the courtyard in which Richmond House’s debating chamber was originally supposed to be built has turned out to be too small to house MPs.
As a result, the entire building (apart from its facade) will need to be knocked down and rebuilt to accommodate them.
Not only is this hugely costly, but it has also outraged conservationists who point out that the Grade II*-listed building is an important and attractive work by Sir William Whitfield, who died only last month.
Another plan would see a Commons chamber created in the atrium of Portcullis House, where many MPs have their offices.
However, Lord Foster’s big idea appears set to become the most popular among conservationists, who believe it can capture the public imagination. ‘ The current project, to relocate to Richmond House, is terrible and destructive,’ says Marcus Binney, president of Save Britain’s Heritage.
‘We are very pleased indeed that this more sensible alternative is now being put forward, and hope it gets seriously considered.’
Working in favour of Lord Foster’s approach is the fact that his prefabricated structure can be taken down and reassembled in an alternative location once the renovation of Parliament is complete.
Supporters of the project hope to creating a museum, concert venue or other tourist attraction elsewhere in the country, helping to offset the enormous costs of Parliament’s refurbishment — and meaning that the nation’s most eye-catching bubble doesn’t always have to stay in Westminster.