Imperial Monumental Halls and Tower

Coordinates: 51°29′57″N 0°7′35.1″W / 51.49917°N 0.126417°W / 51.49917; -0.126417

Lamb and Seddon's 1904 design for a new Imperial Monumental Halls. The Gothic Revival tower would have been the tallest building in the UK with a similar floor area to the Abbey next door. Several different pictures from different angles were created.

The Imperial Monumental Halls and Tower was a grandiose Gothic complex designed for a site in London adjacent to Westminster Abbey. The plans, exhibited at the Royal Academy in March 1904, included a 167-metre-high (548 ft) tower that would have dominated the Clock Tower and Victoria Tower of the nearby Houses of Parliament. It was never built.

The design by John Pollard Seddon – then diocesan architect for London – and Edward Beckitt Lamb (son of Edward Buckton Lamb) was based on earlier schemes that each had proposed separately, and was one of many extensions proposed for Westminster Abbey in late 19th and early 20th centuries by architects such as George Gilbert Scott, George John Shaw Lefevre, James Fergusson, and Henry Travis. In particular, the clergy at Westminster Abbey were concerned that the church was becoming crowded with monuments, and more space was needed. Some of the proposed designs were considered by a Royal Commission in 1891, and the issue was given added impetus after the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in August 1902 by a desire for Westminster Abbey to become a fitting Imperial monument, to compete with the baroque St Paul's Cathedral where Queen Victoria had commemorated her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

The architects aspired to create a grand and expensive monument to "form a worthy centre to the metropolis of the Empire 'upon which the sun never sets'" (quoted in Bremner).

The complex was planned to be joined to the Great Cloister of Westminster Abbey, leading to a 65-foot-wide (20 m) reception hall beneath the tower, with the main body of the building, the Great Monumental Hall, stretching 192 feet (59 m) along Great College Street, incorporating smaller side halls. The halls would have ended with a double transept at the south end, 157 feet (48 m) wide and 47 feet (14 m) deep. The soaring Memorial Tower included a high-level open ambulatory, surmounted by a corona topped by a lantern with bells. It was intended to hold of monuments and imperial trophies in galleries on lower floors, with archives on upper floors. It would have been the tallest building in the UK, significantly higher than the 111 metres (364 ft) dome of St Paul's Cathedral. The complex would have had a similar floor area to Westminster Abbey itself, and would have overshadowed the Houses of Parliament on the other side of the road.

The scheme of work would have included the completion of the tower over the crossing at Westminster Abbey. The Builder magazine criticised the scheme as exhibiting a degree of megalomania.

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