A recent letter in The Times suggested that, since the King seems to have little interest in Buckingham Palace, Parliament should move into it temporarily while the protracted Westminster restoration programme proceeds.
King William IV, who detested the place, wanted Parliament to take it off his hands permanently in 1834 when fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster."It would be the finest thing in Europe”, he told sceptical MPs.
They turned down the royal gift on the extraordinary grounds that too many people would want to visit them. “Much larger accommodation for spectators” would be needed and “galleries filled with the multitude would have fatal effects” on the their deliberations.
