New Scotland Yard, Victoria Embankment (geograph 5650866)

The Norman Shaw Buildings (formerly known as New Scotland Yard) are a pair of buildings in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, London, overlooking the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. The buildings were designed by the architects

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

and

John Dixon Butler John Dixon Butler (December 1860 – 27 October 1920) was a British architect and the Surveyor to London's Metropolitan Police Service, Metropolitan Police from 1895 until his death. He completed the designs and alterations to around 200 police ...

, between 1887 and 1906, they were originally the location of New

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

(the headquarters of the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

) between 1890 and 1967, but from 1979, have been used as

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

offices and have been named Norman Shaw ''North'' and ''South'' Buildings, augmenting limited space in the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

Architecture

The buildings are in banded red brick and white

portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

on a granite base in the Victorian Romanesque style, and are located upon

Victoria Embankment Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare ...

, between

Portcullis House Portcullis House (PCH) is an office building in Westminster, London, United Kingdom, that was commissioned in 1992 and opened in 2001 to provide offices for 213 members of parliament and their staff. The public entrance is on the Embankment. Part ...

– to the south – and

New Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

, to the north.

North Building

The North Building is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It was designed in 1887Factsheet G13: The Norman Shaw Buildings

House of Commons Information Office The House of Commons Enquiry Service, formerly known as the House of Commons Information Office, is a section within the Department of Information Services of the House of Commons. The chief role of the office is to provide the public with inform ...

(August 2010, revised March 2015). as the replacement central offices of the Metropolitan Police, Shaw being the personal choice of the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

, Henry Matthews. It was built on land reclaimed from the

by the building of the Victoria Embankment and which was previously allocated to a new opera house which was already partly built. The cost was around £120,000. In 1888, during the construction of New Scotland Yard, workers discovered the dismembered torso of a female; the case, known as the "

Whitehall Mystery The Whitehall Mystery is an unsolved murder that took place in London in 1888. The dismembered remains of a woman were discovered at three sites in the centre of the city, including the construction site of Scotland Yard, the police headquarters ...

", has never been solved. Opened in 1890, the building was soon found inadequate for the growing police force and an extension was required.

South Building

The South Building, now Grade II* listed, built from 1902 to 1906, was originally called Scotland House. Its elevations were designed by Shaw; Shaw was assisted by the Metropolitan Police's Architect and Surveyor,

. It was linked to the original north building by a bridge over the then public road. Iron gates by

Reginald Blomfield Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield (20 December 1856 – 27 December 1942) was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period. Early life and career Blomfield was born at Bow rectory in Devon, w ...

were erected. They are now Grade II* listed. In 1919, the Directorate of Intelligence was founded in this building.

Refurbishment by the House of Commons

The north building was refurbished between 1973 and 1975, at a cost of £3.25 million, with the external walls being cleaned and the interior being refitted with offices for 128 MPs and their secretaries, dormitories (converted to offices in 2002), television studios, a library and the House of Commons Print Room. False ceilings were erected to conserve heat and improve lighting and carpets were laid. In 2000, a walkway to the Palace of Westminster via

was created, to reduce the time for members to reach the chamber for divisions (voting). The south building was refurbished between 1976 and 1979 with offices for 56 MPs, a gymnasium (later moved to another building) and a flat for the Clerk of the House. No false ceilings or carpeting were fitted, nor was any exterior cleaning carried out. A further refurbishment of the interior and exterior and roof was done between 2001 and 2003. In December 2016, the firm WSP

Parsons Brinckerhoff WSP USA, formerly WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Brinckerhoff, is a multinational engineering and design firm with approximately 14,000 employees. WSP stands for Williams Sale Partnership. The firm operates in the fields of strategic con ...

was awarded a contract to manage a major refurbishment project for various

Parliamentary Estate The Parliamentary Estate is the land and buildings used by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The most notable part of the Parliamentary Estate is the Palace of Westminster, where the chambers of both houses of Parliament (the Commons and th ...

buildings (both Norman Shaw buildings, 1 Derby Gate, and 1 Parliament Street). The project is expected to be complete in the early 2020s.

Offices of the Leader of the Opposition

The offices of the

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

have been located in a suite in the Norman Shaw Buildings since the time of

Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...

. In addition to Howard,

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

and

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...

Jim Pickard
Keir Starmer: ‘The government has been slow in nearly all of the major decisions’
''Financial Times'' (May 7, 2020); have kept their offices in the building during their tenures as opposition leader.

References

Sources

External links

* {{coord, 51.5020, -0.1246, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Buildings and structures on the River Thames Former Metropolitan Police stations Grade I listed buildings in the City of Westminster Grade II* listed buildings in the City of Westminster Grade I listed government buildings Grade II* listed government buildings National government buildings in London Office buildings completed in 1906 Parliamentary Estate Richard Norman Shaw buildings