Portcullis House
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Portcullis House is a building in Westminster, London, used as offices for members of Parliament. Office space has traditionally been very hard to find in the Palace of Westminster and nearby buildings, so in 1992 the House authorised the construction of a new building to provide offices for MPs and their staff.
The building is at the corner of Bridge Street and Victoria Embankment, overlooking the River Thames. The architects, Michael Hopkins & Partners, published their design in 1993 and the existing buildings on the site were demolished in 1994. At the same time London Underground was building the Jubilee Line Extension including a new interchange station at Westminster tube station which occupies the same area so the two were designed and built as a single unit. A thick slab of concrete separates Portcullis House from the station, reportedly to defend against any underground bomb attacks.
Construction was a long process, beginning with works to the existing District Line station at sub-basement level. The track had to be lowered slightly and underpinned to allow the extensive excavation to the Jubilee Line many metres below. The building above ground did not begin to rise until 1998 and did not open until 2001. When it did, there were many newspaper stories complaining about the expense which included the hire of a number of fig trees for the courtyard.
The building's curious profile, with its rows of tall chimneys, is intended to recall the Victorian Gothic design of the Palace of Westminster and to fit in with the chimneys of the Norman Shaw Building next door. Portcullis House's chimneys are not used to expel fumes but are in fact part of an ingenious unpowered air conditioning system, which is designed to draw air through the building by exploiting natural convection flows.
The building is named after the chained portcullis used to symbolise the Houses of Parliament on letterheads and official documents. Portcullis House accommodates only one third of Members of Parliament; other parliamentary offices are located in the Norman Shaw Building, until 1967 the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police but converted from 1973-79 for Parliamentary use, and at 1 Parliament Street, at 7 Millbank, and in the Palace of Westminster itself.
The offices at Portcullis House are generally in sets of two sharing a common bay in the centre. Each floor is unofficially allocated to a different political party so that generally MPs with similar politics are kept together. The first floor houses a number of conference suites and committee rooms which are named after famous politicians Betty Boothroyd, Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, and Jo Grimond. On the ground floor are a range of services including a formal restaurant ('The Debate'), informal cafeteria ('The Adjournment') and a snack shop ('The Despatch Box'). There is also a Post Office and the 'e-Library' where Members and staff may use networked computers.
External links
- Portcullis House website (http://www.portcullis-house.com/)
- Another view of Portcullis House (http://www.geocities.com/londondestruction/portcullis.html)