Portcullis House
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Portcullis House in Westminster, London, was commissioned in 1992 to provide offices for Members of Parliament and their staff, augmenting limited space in the Palace of Westminster and surroundings.
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. The load is borne by the walls, without interior posts. The corners of the building are hung from the roof using massive steel beams. The design life of 120 years meant that aluminium bronze was chosen for exposed metal on the roof and walls.
Construction began 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 yards below. The building above ground began to rise in 1998 and opened in 2001.
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 part of an ingenious, unpowered air conditioning system, which is designed to draw air through the building by exploiting natural convection flows. It is based on the system used in 1996 in the Eastgate Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe.
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 between 1973 and 1979 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 waiter-service restaurant ('The Adjournment'), informal cafeteria ('The Debate') and a coffee shop ('The Despatch Box'). There is also a Post Office; and the e-Library, an enquiry point where Members and staff can use networked computers, run by the House of Commons Library. There is also an underground passage into the Palace of Westminster and a connection to the Parliament Street and Norman Shaw Buildings.
