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OTD 70 years ago, MPs sat for the first time in the reconstructed House of Commons. The chamber they had used since 1852 was destroyed in May 1941 during a Blitz raid on London.
For most of the intervening nine years the Commons sat in the House of Lords chamber. The Speaker’s chair was placed opposite the Throne.
In their new chamber for the first time, the Speaker Douglas Clifton Brown said: “May I, as your Speaker, welcome all my fellow Members back to their old home. It will seem new to many, but none the less it is our true home, for here have been fought ...
“And will be fought, I trust, those Parliamentary battles which have so enhanced the fame of the British House of Commons. Our first act on coming home has been one of worship and of dedication and in all humbleness of heart I pray, May the Almighty God bless our home.”
Prime minister Clement Attlee in his first speech in the new chamber, noted the gifts from across the Commonwealth.
“You, Sir, are sitting in the Chair presented by Australia. The Serjeant at Arms sits in the chair which is the gift of Ceylon. The Table comes from Canada, the boxes from New Zealand, the chairs at the Table from South Africa, the Bar of the House from Jamaica.
“We pass through doors given by India and Pakistan. Chairs and tables, lamps and clocks, and many other articles of use and beauty, are reminders of the generosity of our fellow citizens in other lands.”
Leader of the opposition Sir Winston Churchill began his remarks with a joke: “In rising today at a somewhat mature time in my life to make my maiden speech in this House, I feel, Mr. Speaker, that I ought not to conceal from you that I have a past.”
Churchill, who first sat in the House of Commons in 1900, said: “I have many memories of the air space in which we sit, now enclosed afresh in its traditional garments.”
After the speeches, the House adjourned. MPs met in Westminster Hall for a grand ceremony attendee by 29 Commonwealth Speakers and the Royal Family, including the future Queen, then Princess Elizabeth.
The Commons chamber has been in continuous use since 1950. From Attlee to Johnson, 15 prime ministers have stood at that despatch box - a gift from the people of New Zealand.
Plans for MPs to move to a temporary replica chamber in Richmond House during the R&R programme are on hold.
The Commons looks a little different at the moment due to pandemic procedures, but the chamber is the same as that dedicated by King George VI on this day 70 years ago.
©UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
©UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
