A New Westminster
WHEN I first learned that Westminster Abbey was to be demolished in the foreseeable future I was as dumbfounded as, no doubt, will be the readers of these words. I sought permis- sion on the very highest level to present the case for demolition to •an intelligent public in the favourable light in which 1 now myself see it and received an express intimation from my Minister himself via .the deputy comptroller that I could do so. Neither. my Minister nor the London County Council Planning Committee nor the works and buildings committee of the West- minster City Council, all of whom are of course directly and indirectly concerned with the pro- posed demolition, wished the matter to be dis- cussed yet in the national press. It was considered that what my Minister culls 'a feeler' might be put out in the Spectator or the Manchester Guardian, to test the more enlightened reaction • of an exclusive and cultivated public to a scheme the benefits of which might not at first seem to outweigh the somewhat sentimental losses. Both my Minister, the LCC and any local planning committees have always found that in practice it is best to present the general public with a fait accompli when a scheme is ultimately for its own good. I must, therefore, ask my readers not to pass on the information they read here to their lady helps, domestic science assistants, public cleansing officers, etc., but to confine their information to administrative grades.
" For some time now the Minister of Transport has been concerned by the increase of traffic between Victoria and Parliament Square and notably by the bottleneck caused by the projec- tion of the western towers of the Abbey into the roadway. In the near future it is proposed 'to erect on the site of the old Westminster Hospital a much-needed block of government offices, with the result that the bottleneck will be further in- tensified. My Minister was reluctant to take the drastic course of demolishing the Abbey without first examining all possible alternatives. The, most obvious of these was the setting back of the pro- posed new government offices so as to secure a consistent width of roadway the whole way down
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Victoria Street to Parliament Square. To this there were insuperable objections : the plans for the new offices were already in an advanced state and could not be altered except at prohibitive cost to the public funds; the roadway itself would make an unnecessary curve, to avoid the Abbey and interrupt a fine vista the LCC planning authorities had, with imaginative foresight, ar- ranged whereby Big Ben would be visible with the Houses of Parliament from as far away down Victoria Street as the Army and Navy Stores. Another course to be taken was that of leaving things as they are, whicl) prima fade, is im- possible.
My Minister had then to consider the pros and cons of the Abbey itself. It has undoubted historic associations going back as far as Saxon times, though the vestiges of these interesting days are so slight as to cause very little trouble in their preservation, if it is envisaged, in the new scheme for developing the site. Then there are the memorials of eminent persons in the politi- cal, scientific, economic and artistic worlds whose bones are interred in the Abbey. By arrangement with the development company which is to erect the fine new building on the site, my Minister has arranged that these shall be moved and re- erected in a suitable cloister or close at Brook- wood Cemetery, where they will be open to those members of the public who still enjoy the rather Morbid occupation of examining gravestones.
Next my Minister was faced with finding alternative accommodation for the purposes for which the Abbey is used at present. There are still a certain amount of religious services carried on there, though, we may confidently expect, as material progress continues, to rapidly diminish- ing numbers. By arrangement with neighbouring vicars of the Church of England and with the full assurance of the authorities of the a,djacent Roman Catholic Cathedral at Westminster that they will receive any members of the existing congregation of the Abbey who may care to join them, it should be possible to cater for these persons without undue inconvenience. Finally, there are the rare occasions when the building is used for Coronations, and we must assume, for the present, that the monarchy will continue to exist. All will agree that the present building is too small, too inconvenient and too ill-planned to enable those many thousands who may wish to witness this quaint and historic ceremony to see it. It is suggested that a place with better visi- bility, say, the Festival Hall or Wembley Stadium, be used for future Coronations. This will have the additional advantage of being non- sectarian.
As to the fabric itself, my Minister has given this careful consideration. He has consulted acknowledged experts and learns that the build- ing, though ancient in origin, was not all built at one period and therefore lacks the con- sistency of a single unit of architecture such as is envisaged on its site. The controversial western towers are indeed a fake, having been ascribed to Sir Christopher Wren and being in a Gothic which, if my readers will pardon the phrase, can only be called 'bastard.' The exterior was largelY refaced by the Victorians, who notably lacked artistic taste. The only feature which all are agreed as being of exceptional merit is the Henry VII chapel, which, though very late and decadent Gothic, has a certain charm. The de' velopers have expressed themselves as willing t° retain a portion of this, if possible, in their neW building, since they maintain that as it is the best the Middle Ages could do in the way of glass and stone (stainless steel not then having been discovered) it can be made to' harmonise with the simpler and more honest expression of our own age in steel and glass which they art,• proposing to erect. But if they keep a part 01 this chapel they will have, for economic reasons, to develop on the site of the somewhat redundant church of St. Margaret, Westminster.
Finally, there come the advantages of the PO' posed scheme, which may be summarised under the following heads.
Practical: London's traffic problem will be materially eased by a free passage of transport, between the busy stations of Victoria 811 Waterloo and buses and cars will be able 10 travel much faster from the South-West r° Whitehall. A more suitable building will be Prct, vided elsewhere for Coronations. Much needed government and commercial offices will be Pr°. vided in •Westminster which, in the neighbour,' hood of the existing Abbey, lags far behilia the City of London in commercial developroct Economic: The development company willing to pay a high enough sum for this Or site to offset the cost of the road improvements ,1 and gain in public parking space which result, thus putting no burden on the ratepayers'
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Artistic: The very best architects are to 71 employed by the company and the design will of course be submitted to the LCC, the WO. minster Corporation and possibly even to the Royal Fine Arts Commission. The resulting. achievement, to be in the form of a glass al? steel tower hung with specially designed curtain walling and three hundred feet high with sub; sidiary light and airy blocks rising to not more than one hundred feet, will challenge, as our out° age should if we have any faith in it, the Houses of Parliament to which it will act as a vast fo!. A new vista will be opened from Victoria Street. A worthy contribution to a famous AY' line will at last be added in a part too loll dominated by the obsolescent buildings ° past eras.
As a Government servant and Public Relatio0 Officer I cannot, for obvious reasons, subscribe my name to this article, but have paid a journalist to do so who has pleasure in signing himself
J. BETJE'
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