NEW PUBLIC OFFICES.—QUESTIONS. (Hansard, 5 March 1872)

§ LORD REDESDALE
asked Her Majesty's Government, When the public offices now building in Downing Street are to be completed for occupation: When the houses between them and Parliament Street are to be pulled down: Whether it is intended to widen the rest of Parliament Street in like manner, and, if so, when; and whether other public offices are to be erected on that frontage? The noble Lord said, that obviously a great improvement might be effected by the pulling down of the houses referred to in his second Question:—besides, as long as they stood they would be a source of danger from fire to the new Public Offices. To widen the rest of Parliament Street down to George Street would be a very great convenience to the public; but it would require the purchase of the whole block of buildings between Parliament Street and King Street. If it were intended to erect other public buildings on that frontage, it was very desirable, in an economical point of view, that the Government should purchase the property as soon as possible. Many of the houses were now old; but the property in that neighbourhood was sure to become more expensive. He hoped, therefore, the answer would not be that nothing had been done, or was about to be done, on this subject.

§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE
replied that the Public Offices in Downing Street would probably be completed and ready for occupation about the spring of the year. The houses between them and Parliament Street would not, for obvious reasons, be pulled down until the Offices were nearly completed. Three of those houses were in occupation as Public Offices, and were thus serving a valuable purpose; and the remaining houses, which had been for some time in the hands of the Crown, were paying rent, which need not be forfeited until a necessity for relinquishing it arose. And further, the row of houses formed an effectual screen behind which the noisy and unsightly building operations were concealed—so that the public gained an advantage by its retention. The Go- 1389 vernment had no intention at present of widening the rest of Parliament Street. The noble Lord's Question seemed to point to a plan at one time under the consideration of the Government, which contemplated the erection of all the Public Offices within a block bounded by Downing Street, Parliament Street, King Street, and George Street. That scheme was abandoned, mainly owing to the necessity for placing the new War Office in close proximity with the Horse Guards. The present intention was that the new War Office and the new Admiralty should be placed in Whitehall—the War Office to be at a convenient distance from the Horse Guards. That would be a step in the direction of that concentration which the noble Lord advocated. No doubt the projecting portion of building between King Street and Parliament Street was unsightly; but it would be impossible to ask the country to incur great expense in order to acquire the land between King Street and Parliament Street, unless it was absolutely necessary to construct public buildings upon it, or to use it for some other public purpose. If the demolition of the buildings in question was requisite to give larger space for the immense traffic of Parliament Street, the acquisition and demolition of the property would properly be carried out by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and not by a Government Department.

§ LORD REDESDALE
thought it a great misfortune that the Government had not the courage to ask for money to enable them to acquire the site to which he had referred, for the arrangement would be economical. Buildings more conveniently situated with regard to the Horse Guards could not be found than those now used for the Home Office and the adjoining Offices. Instead of pulling down the Horse Guards or the Admiralty in order to put up something now, it would be better to use the buildings already erected.