QUESTION. (Hansard, 6 August 1874)

§ LORD REDESDALE
wished to be informed as to the course intended to be taken by Her Majesty's Government in reference to the property on the west side of Parliament Street and adjacent to the new Government Offices. He urged that it would be advantageous on many grounds, for the Government to acquire the property and erect upon 1402 the sites additional offices. In the first place, it would add greatly to the appearance of the neighbourhood in an architectural point of view; and, in the second, it would have the effect of concentrating the Government Offices, which at the present time were scattered about in Parliament Street, Whitehall Gardens, Pall Mall, St. James's Square, and other places. In a financial point of view, again, it would be advantageous to deal with the matter at once. The price of the property would go up year by year, and in the course of time it would be necessary to pay for it a much larger sum than would be necessary for its purchase at the present time. He hoped to receive some assurance that the matter was under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government, and also that the authorities of the War Office had not lost sight of the proposals which had been made for the removal of Knightsbridge Barracks. He confessed, he was opposed to the removal, and on the whole, saw no sufficient reason for it. It should be borne in mind that the houses in the neighbourhood had come to the barracks, not the barracks to the houses. Although, therefore, the inhabitants of the latter might be subjected to certain annoyances in consequence of their proximity to a military establishment, the Government ought to consider that if any alteration was made, another neighbourhood and other houses would be subjected to the annoyance instead of the fashionable locality in question. If it was necessary to widen the road near the barracks, it would, he thought, be best to do so on the side opposite, by the removal of the public-houses and other places whose existence in the neighbourhood had made the barracks objectionable. Under the circumstances he trusted the Government would not interfere in the matter.

§ EARL FORTESCUE
agreed with his noble Friend that there was no hardship inflicted on those who resided in the immediate neighbourhood of Knightsbridge, and especially those who had built houses there, though their property was of course depreciated by the proximity of those barracks. Their removal would, of course, be looked on as a great boon to that neighbourhood; but he was entirely opposed to it: only, if done, he hoped it would be done in such a way as not unfairly to depreciate 1403 the value of other property in some other neighbourhood.

THE EARL OF PEMBROKE
said, that with regard to the question of Knights-bridge Barracks, the Secretary of State for War had listened to a great number of proposals, but he had not as yet come to any definite conclusion with regard to them.

§ EARL BEAUCHAMP
said, that as regarded that part of the Question of the noble Lord which referred to the western side of Parliament Street, no conclusion had been resolved upon. As the new block of buildings had been completed, fresh opportunities of accommodation would be afforded in the old buildings; and when that was exhausted occasion might arise for deciding whether it would be necessary to acquire the site now occupied by the block of houses in Parliament Street.