LOUD SPEAKERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23316, 27 September 1945, Page 5

LOUD SPEAKERS

Use In New House Of Commons Loud speakers for members of Parliament, special air-conditioning apparatus, a more “domestic" and less ecclesiastical building, with everybody getting a better view, are (the “Daily Telegraph" says) some of the features of the new Ho,use of Commons to replace the Chamber destroyed by a Nazi bomber in 1941. Mr A. Gilbert Scott, architect, brother of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, designer of the new House, gave these details when he spoke to the Town and Country Planning Association in London. Mr Scott said ■> there would be. roughly, one loud speaker to every two members. He added, with a smile: “They have to be incorporated inconspicuously in the seating and made proof against damage by members who are reported to be in the habit of dismantling anything within reach during a dull debate, leaving a heap of screw's and other components on the floor.” Members of Parliament were also confirmed “doodlers” in telephone boxes, and engineers had been to some pains to evolve a surface proof against it. “We think we have discovered something which will annoy them very much, ’ he said The chief problem, as in a theatre, was not the heating but the cooling of the Chamber. Unlike a theatre, the attendance was liable to violent fluctuations without warning. That necessitated correspondingly quick adjustments of the ventilation. To enable that to be done it was proposed to install a periscope in the ceiling. so that the control engineer could observe the number of members and strangers and adjust, the ventilation accordingly. There were all types of heating and air conditioning to every room and telephone box. The building was developed into one mass of ducts and conduits, all of which had been discreetly hidden. There would be 939 seats, an increase Of 137. Some 437 seats were being provided for 640 members, the same accommodation in the days before 1918. when, with the Irish members, there were 670 members altogether. (The balance of 502 seats will be for officials and in the peers', strangers, and other galleries.) Mr Scott gave the following quotation from a speech by Mr Churchill to architects in 1924:—“We make our buildings, and afterwards they make us. Thev regulate the course of our lives. The whole character of British parliamentary institutions depends on the fact that the House of Commons is an oblong and not a semi-circular structure.” Sir Arthur Salter. M.P.. who presided. declared that he was relieved that the new House was to preserve the character of the old. Work on the building will begin in November, and may last between three and five years. Kenya proposes to send to Britain as a token of admiration, a gift o( timber for panelling and furnishing the new House of Commons.