Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, expressed serious concern about the fate of the Palace of Westminster, where the British Parliament sits. According to him, the historical monument of the 19th century is in critical condition and may collapse. This is reported by gazet.ru with reference to the Financial Times.

The building, built in the neo-Gothic style, is famous not only for its architecture, but also for the famous Big Ben located on the Elizabeth Tower. However, behind the magnificent facade lies a depressing picture: dampness, rodents, dilapidated electrical wiring, asbestos - all this creates a constant threat not only to the building, but also to the people who work in it.

The problem has been brewing for a long time. Back in 2012, a feasibility study was carried out, which revealed the need for urgent reconstruction. The cost of major renovations to the palace is estimated at billions of pounds, and the time frame for completing the work is tens of years.

So, in 2015, auditors estimated the cost of completely renovating the palace at 5.7 billion pounds sterling and assumed that it would take 32 years if parliamentarians were evicted. If MPs remain in the building, renovations will cost £22 billion and take 76 years.

So far, reconstruction plans have stalled, and meanwhile time is not kind to the historical monument. Tristram Hunt proposes not to delay solving the problem and to allocate special funding for the restoration of the building. He hopes that the restoration will be completed by the 200th anniversary of the fire of 1834, which already led to the destruction of the Palace of Westminster.

As temporary solutions, it is proposed to build a new parliament building in a futuristic style or a temporary modular structure on the Thames.