§ LORD REDESDALErose to draw attention to the line of frontage of the new Government Offices in Downing Street and King Street, and to ask whether it is the intention to purchase property in that neighbourhood for other offices, and for the improvement of the approach to the Houses of Parliament? For many years he had endeavoured to enforce upon the Government the importance of purchasing the property between Great George Street, Parliament Street, and the new Foreign Office, because it was utterly impossible to carry out all the necessary improvements without possessing more space than the Government at present had. More than that—no person, he was sure, could be satisfied with the present approach to the Houses of Parliament. Parliament Street was utterly inadequate to the traffic which passed through it, and King Street was a wretched narrow thoroughfare. Another circumstance was that the improvements which were being effected by Government in that locality produced this consequence, that every day the surrounding property became more valuable. The purchase of the property would not have 1451 caused any great expenditure if it had taken place some years ago, or even if it took place now, because there was no necessity for immediate occupation by the Government; and if the freehold interest were acquired the tradesmen and others might remain in possession until the property was actually wanted. Another circumstance to which he wished to draw attention was this — if any one of their Lordships walked down Whitehall he would see that the now building was not upon the same line of frontage as the building in which the Privy Council Office was; and how any good architectural effect could be produced by having the two buildings upon different lines of frontage he could not conceive. He desired to ask whether King Street was to be widened, or were the new buildings to be placed in the existing narrow street? It would be monstrous to have such buildings in so narrow a street, where it would be impossible to allow a carriage to stop at the door for fear of blocking the thoroughfare. If, on the other hand, they widened King Street, they would by so doing improve the value of the property on the other side of it, and this they must eventually purchase if they wished to widen Parliament Street. In Charles Street they had pulled down the houses on one side, and were building there a very fine elevation against one of the nastiest and shabbiest streets in Westminster, and were of course improving the value of the houses opposite. Every house, also, of which the lease fell in, or which wanted repair, was so improved as to render it much more expensive to buy. Since he had first brought the matter before their Lordships as many as from twenty to thirty houses in the locality had been rebuilt. In the new building the line of Charles Street had been taken; and the consequence is that the two sides of Downing Street will not be parallel, but run into each other like a wedge, and on the parade the new building would not be at right angles with the Horse Guards. He thought that it was most unfortunate that this should be so.
§ EARL GRANVILLEwas understood to say that he agreed to a great extent with the noble Lord. The Department of the Government which had the matter in hand were of opinion that it would be necessary to purchase all the houses in Charles Street, in order to provide anything like a decent approach to the Houses of Parliament and the other handsome buildings which there would be in the neighbourhood. The cost of this purchase was es- 1452 timatcd at £300,000. With regard to the new building not being rectangular with the existing buildings, the same tiling existed in regard to some of the finest structures in Europe, and he believed that the architectural arrangement would be such that no defect would be observed.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Seven o'clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten o'clock.