Westminster World Heritage Site and Parliament Square a national disgrace

New vision which puts citizen and visitor at its heart is needed, says new report from the Hansard Society

A new report from the Hansard Society - A Place for People – Proposals for Enhancing Visitor Engagement with Parliament’s Environs - exploring how better use can be made of the Westminster World Heritage Site and Parliament Square concludes that rather than a place of national pride  this landmark area is a national disgrace.

 

 

 

A Place for People describes the area, which attracts over 30 million visitors a year, as unwelcoming: ‘a noisy, polluted, inaccessible place, seething with traffic and pedestrians and pockmarked by fortress-like security’. The report sets out a range of ideas for the development of a new vision for the area which puts the citizen and visitor at its heart, and which would unlock the potential of the site in ways commensurate with its international status and reputation. The report calls for a new vision to be implemented with the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in 2015 in mind.

In the past 30 years there have been several proposals for improvements to the area but little progress has been made.* A Place for People provides recommendations to improve both physical and intellectual access to the area, including:

• Improving traffic management and pedestrianising Parliament Square;
• Rationalising the World Heritage Site by expanding the boundary to include Parliament Square, Victoria Tower Gardens, Abingdon Street Gardens and Canning Green;
• Turning Parliament Square into a forum for both spontaneous and organised citizenship, similar in style to a Speakers’ Corner. As well as a site for protest, it should be a place for a rich and diverse programme of events, lectures and discussions managed by an independent Square Steering Group;
• Improving signage and information provision throughout the World Heritage Site and neighbouring areas;
• Establishing new guided walks - for example:
• a new Magna Carta Walkway (to mark the 2015 anniversary) supported by maps, guidebooks, and multi-media guides;
• a cultural corridor linking Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square to Tate Britain through the provision of signage,  information maps, leaflets and digital applications to relate the democratic story through the mix of art, statuary and sculpture en route.
• Improving access to and use of Victoria Tower Gardens, including the introduction of a ‘People’s Terrace’ facility offering visitor amenities;
• Converting the Parliamentary Bookshop on Bridge Street into a Visitor Information Centre where maps, leaflets, multi-media guides as well as gifts and souvenirs can be obtained;
• Converting 6/7 Old Palace Yard into an exhibition and interpretation space for Parliament supplemented by improved interpretation space at the Jewel Tower;
• Converting the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre into a multi-stakeholder World Heritage Site Visitors’ Centre.

The current management model for the World Heritage Site clearly does not work. This report therefore also calls for a new, more collaborative approach: membership of the World Heritage Site Management Plan Steering Group should be revised and implementation of a new management plan should be overseen preferably by a new Westminster World Heritage Trust or the appointment of a co-ordinator.

Dr Ruth Fox, joint author of A Place for People and Director of the Hansard Society’s Parliament and Government programme, commented: ‘The current state of the area does not say much for our sense of national pride and civic values. Those tasked with responsibility for the area have been negligent in their stewardship. Our proposals offer a new vision which puts the citizen and visitor at the heart of the area.

The opportunity to showcase the area during next year's Olympics and Diamond Jubilee - the biggest events attracting people to the capital in a generation - has largely been wasted. But there are new opportunities ahead, particularly linked to the 2015 Magna Carta anniversary. The worst outcome of all would be for the stakeholders, as in the past, to adopt an all or nothing approach. Implementation of any of the proposals set out in this report would be an improvement on the status quo.'

For further information, contact Virginia Gibbons mediaprog@hansard.lse.ac.uk or 020 7438 1225 or 07812 765 552


Editors’ Notes

• The Hansard Society is the UK's leading independent, non-partisan political research and education charity.
• The research for A Place for People was supported by the Group on Information for the Public, UK Parliament.
• The report’s findings are based on desk and archive research, supplemented by discussion groups, one-to-one interviews and consultations with key stakeholders.

* Previous reports include:

• 1970 Greater London Council’s Three Square’s Project
• 1998 – World Squares for All Masterplan  
• 2006 – World Squares for All - Parliament Square Regeneration: A Framework for Action