Heritage special: Restoring Parliament

With an estimated cost of £4bn to £6bn, the Palace of Westminster’s restoration and renewal programme is the granddaddy of all heritage projects. The scheme’s architecture lead Julian Flannery took Will Mann on a tour of Parliament to explain some of the challenges.

As heritage projects go, few can match the Palace of Westminster for sheer scale and complexity. 

The the proposed renovation and renewal (R&R) programme has attracted wide criticism for its jaw-dropping price tag – estimates range from £4bn to £6bn – and the requirement that all politicians and support staff will have to be decanted while it takes place.

An MPs’ debate on the renovation, which was due to take place this month, has been postponed by the government to take account of representations received.

“The reality is that the nature of the work now required simply cannot happen while the buildings are occupied,” says Julian Flannery, architecture lead for the R&R programme.

Flannery has agreed to give CM a tour of the Houses of Parliament to explain the challenges faced by the Palace’s estates team and the issues the R&R programme needs to address. “As things stand, we are spending a significant amount on general upkeep but that is rising each year as the condition of the buildings deteriorates,” Flannery says. “Last year we spent £49m. This year it will be £60m. And it’s not enough to keep up.”

Also, much of the work now needed simply cannot be completed in the windows available, adds Flannery. “In the House of Lords debating chamber, many of the high-level decorations could only be accessed by constructing an internal scaffold,” he explains. “There simply wouldn’t be time to erect and dismantle that, even in the parliament recess. In the meantime, these features are slowly being damaged irreversibly.”

Besides the general upkeep, the estates team is managing one-off projects such as replacing Westminster Hall roof and renovating Big Ben. The latter has also drawn criticism after the cost, following a two-stage tender process with Sir Robert McAlpine, rose from £22m to £61m. A harbinger of things to come on the main R&R programme?

CM’s tour begins at the gate to Victoria Tower. The Palace of Westminster was built from traditional load-bearing brickwork, with some 14,000 cu m of stone sourced from Anston Quarry in Yorkshire, the personal choice of architect Charles Barry. But there were problems from the start. 

“At the quarry, the wrong bedding was selected so the stone that came to Westminster was often very poor quality,” Flannery says. “Spalling began during the construction programme, and the condition of the stone worsened because of Victorian London’s terrible air quality. A further 22,500 cu m of Anston Stone were used for repairs in 1902, but running repairs have been carried out ever since the 1930s.”

Above: The effects of pollution on the stonework of Peers Court (Image: James Robinson; Adam Watrobski) and stonework damage to the exterior of the Palace (below)

The masonry at the Victoria Tower does not look in bad condition at first glance, although the tonal differences where stones have been replaced are clear on close inspection. A programme of stonework cleaning and restoration, across the entire Palace estate, began in the 1980s and is still ongoing; there are three internal courtyards still to finish. 

Later in the tour, we walk through one of these, Peers Court, and get a glimpse of what the Palace must have looked like in the 19th century: the walls are black with soot. Contractor Walter Lilly is carrying out the restoration here, and one of its materials palettes gives us some idea of its complexity: every stone is a different shape and size, intricately carved to match the originals they will replace. 

Inside the Palace, the poor condition of many of the Gothic decorations and furnishings, mostly designed by Barry’s assistant Augustus Welby Pugin, soon becomes apparent.

“Access has prevented us from carrying out many much-needed repairs,” Flannery says. “Even during the summer recess the pressure from visitors and the need to ensure the House can be recalled with only 48 hours notice means that significant features such as the statues of the Magna Carta barons remain inaccessible.

“The electroplated zinc surface of these statues has been pitted by dirt and atmospheric acid deposits, and this can only be addressed by removing the statues from site for conservation.”

Protecting fragile murals

There are constraints on the renovation work in many of the lavishly decorated interior spaces. The Royal Gallery houses two of the largest murals in the Palace, Daniel Maclise’s The Death of Nelson and The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher, painted using the “water glass” technique, a departure from the traditional Italian fresco style – and they are in a delicate condition.

“The murals were painted on a relatively fragile lath and plaster surface, and because stone repairs are being carried out in the courtyard behind, we must have monitoring equipment in place to check the vibration levels from the drilling do not affect the paintings,” says Flannery. 

“The other problem for the murals is humidity. The air is extremely dry at present and this has caused the canvases to become very tight and more susceptible to damage. So when we come to the R&R programme, we would prefer not to remove the paintings due to the damage risk, and instead will have to find a way of protecting them during the renovation work.”

Above: Heavy footfall inside the Palace has resulted in faded tiles

Underfoot, part of the floor area is cordoned off because of an ongoing encaustic tiles repair and restoration programme for all major circulation areas in Westminster, which is being managed by Lendlease. Although the tiles are durable, heavy footfall has worn off their colourful patterns in many areas. Conservation specialist DBR, also working on Walter Lilly’s courts restoration project, is renewing the tiles. 

The tiles were originally supplied by Minton, which is no longer in operation, so replacements are being sourced from Craven Dunnill Jackfield in Shropshire, says Flannery. “They will be of higher quality than the originals, so hopefully will wear better, and the manufacturer has studied the original techniques used by Minton for the reproductions.”

One of the biggest problems for the interior of the Palace is water damage caused by the leaking roof. The cast iron roofs, constructed on wrought iron structures, were leading-edge technology in the mid-1800s, but have never undergone a major renovation. 

“It’s a Victorian ‘kit of parts’, and unfortunately for the present day estates team, because rainwater downpipes and ventilation were built into the structure, it is very difficult to find the source of the leaks,” explains Flannery.

Patched up repairs to the leaky roof

The roof structure is not the only place water comes in. Flannery leads the way up a narrow spiral staircase into the Central Tower, which rises above the octagonal Central Lobby, the heart of the Palace. The tower is closed to public access and it’s apparent why.

Designed as one of the Palace’s seven ventilation shafts, the belfry is open to the elements and rain drips down on to the roof of Central Lobby and seeps through to the decorative ceiling – where the damage is visible even from ground level. 

Jammed with ductwork

Here, hidden from the public eye, is another of the estate team’s big issues. This redundant void in the 96m tower is stuffed full of services – mechanical plant directly over the lobby, ductwork, cables winding around the walls like ivy. “They’ve been installed in a piecemeal fashion over the decades,” says Flannery. “All of the original ventilation shafts are jammed with ventilation ductwork serving the mechanical plant, because there was nowhere else for them to go.”

The ventilation system, designed by David Boswell Reid, involved seven ventilation towers, including the Victoria Tower and Elizabeth Tower. Fans occupying 40% of the basement would extract air through concealed passages – such as under the benches of the Royal Gallery and in between the ceiling decorations – and out through these “chimneys”.

Barry kept the design feature through did not use it for the purpose intended. Mechanical ventilation plant was added in the 20th century, and the ductwork runs through the towers.

“We are now looking at how these historic voids may be incorporated into the new building services design, which will be installed in the R&R programme,” says Flannery. “Sustainable architecture expert Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt has been seconded to Parliament to investigate the potential.”

Building services will, in fact, be comfortably the biggest element of the R&R programme. “As much as three-quarters, by value,” says Flannery.

The basement of the Palace is a tangle of pipework and cabling. The steam-based heating and distribution system, which runs the length of the building, has some pipes up to 130 years old. This is partly due to access being restricted by asbestos, which is present throughout the estate, and is another obstacle for the R&R work.

M&E work began in 2010 to address some of the legacy problems, but has only replaced 15% of the infrastructure, buying time.

The basement of the Palace is a tangle of pipework and cabling

Energy performance is a “massive issue”, says Flannery. “Most of the 3,800 windows do not shut properly, which is terribly energy inefficient, and some are in such a bad state as to be dangerous.” 

The lighting quality is also poor, Flannery continues. “The light fittings were originally designed for gas, including the biggest in the Palace in Central Lobby, and converted to electric not long after,” he says. “Many new fittings were added in the 1950s.

“The intention is to use LEDs and fibre optics throughout, though the design has not started yet. Most of the electrics will also need to be rewired. This will also improve the appearance of the heritage features – we estimate it will increase the visibility of the murals by 70%.”

Flannery and the R&R team are currently poring over 3,000 of Barry’s original drawings of the Palace, held in the National Archives in Kew, which will be used to plan the work programme.

“A BIM Revit model will also be created as part of this process,” says Flannery. “Drones are being used to survey the northern end of the estate. It’s a major help as otherwise access would be extremely difficult. 

“We want to include details of building fabrics, paintings, sculptures and other decorations in the model – which isn’t common in BIM. We are also cataloguing the many decorative features which have fallen off or been removed from the Palace over the years, and are now held in our architectural salvage store in Acton. For example, the carved bosses fell off the House of Lords ceiling 20 years ago. We may be able to reinstate some of them during the R&R programme.”

The start date for the work is still some way off, “probably 2025”, says Flannery. BDP and CH2M Hill were appointed to manage the work last year. As for a completion date, that is unlikely to be until some time in the 2030s, depending on the approach taken.

The scaffolding and protective sheeting currently encasing Big Ben and Westminster Hall is going to become a familiar site across the whole Parliament estate.