Officials from London with the task of managing a £20 billion restoration of the Houses of Parliament have visited the Bristol Beacon to learn more about how to restore historic buildings.
The delegation from the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority were given a tour of the central Bristol concert hall, and the teams who worked on it shared their expertise and experience.
The Bristol Beacon is due to reopen this autumn after running more than three years and £87 million over budget. The project to restore the Houses of Parliament hasn’t even properly begun yet, but already costs have spiralled from around £3 billion to a potential £22 billion, and it could take as long as 70 years to complete.
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The parliament restoration experts met local MP Thangam Debbonaire, and joined 17 businesses in the Bristol and West Country area who are expert in everything from engineering and architecture in the historic buildings restoration industry, as they toured the concert hall formerly known as the Colston Hall.
Ms Debbonaire, as shadow leader of the House of Commons, is a key member of Parliament’s Restoration and Renewal Client Board, which is making the critical decisions on the way forward for the restoration of the Westminster parliament. She joined the team behind the restoration of the Beacon to discuss how to apply the lessons learned in Bristol to the Parliament project.
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“The Bristol Beacon is at the heart of our cultural landscape. When the refurbishment is complete it will transform our city centre. I can’t wait to see it reopen,” she said. “As an MP also working on the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster it’s been great to learn the lessons from the Beacon’s refurbishment.
“Both buildings hold a special place in people’s hearts. They are of huge historical and cultural significance. It’s right that action is taken to save them,” she added.
Nigel Evans, the deputy speaker of the Commons and the man chairing the restoration programme board, said: “When any major event happens in our democracy, it’s the Palace of Westminster at its very heart. We want to make sure that heart is still beating in 100 years’ time.
“The public want to see the Palace of Westminster renewed, and there is great potential for new business, skills and opportunities throughout the UK from the works,” he added.
The visit, which also took in Gloucester Cathedral, was also an opportunity for those specialist firms in the West Country to learn about how to win contracts at the Parliament project. The managing director of Business West, Phil Smith, said: “We are delighted to host the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Roundtable focusing on the most complex building restoration project undertaken in the UK.
“With a skills shortage gripping the nation and the South West region, this programme will support jobs and apprenticeships, requiring a variety of specialist skills in building conservation and heritage trades,” he added. The roundtable was an invaluable opportunity for attendees to shape the procurement process and explore the potential for regional growth.”
The Bristol Beacon project was supposed to cost little more than £40 million when it was first decided on - but those costs spiralled as soon as the venue closed and the interior started to be stripped back. It leapt up to more than £100 million, and another £25 million was produced by the Mayor of Bristol in January this year, to get the project finished this year.
The restoration of Parliament was the subject of a lengthy report in 2022 which outlined three options for the mammoth project. If MPs and Lords and other officials moved out completely for up to ten years, it could cost less than £10 billion, but if the main Commons chamber was kept in use throughout the process it could take up to 70 years and cost £22 billion but, like the Bristol Beacon, the true cost won’t be known - the report added - until the walls are stripped back and the state of the structure is fully known.
