Putting our House in order

With the Houses of Parliament requiring costly renovation, new research suggests we may have something to learn from plans in the 1730s to rebuild the Palace of Westminster. We see Kent introduce increasingly spiky structures: an interesting melding of a pictorial notion of the gothic steeple, rendered in classical form - Frank Salmon It was a decade that has some resonance for contemporary London. At the end of a 20-year building boom, London was sprawling outwards and soaring upwards. Its skyline was punctuated by imposing new structures juxtaposed with ramshackle old buildings - including the rambling, crumbling Palace of Westminster. So in 1733, William Kent, influential landscape gardener, designer and architect, was commissioned to design a more spacious and convenient "Edifice that may be made use of for the Reception of the Parliament." Over the course of the next decade, Kent submitted a succession of plans ranging from a complete rebuild to a salvage operation. They came to nothing. By 1742, the coffers had been drained by war with Spain and British embroilment in the War of Austrian Succession.