To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the sites considered for the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre meet the specifications in the paper by the UK National Holocaust Memorial Foundation National Memorial and Learning Centre: Search for a Central London Site, published in September 2015, in particular that the site should provide (1) a place where people can pay their respects, contemplate, think and offer prayer, (2) a lecture theatre and classrooms, (3) offices for holocaust educational organisations, and (4) space for gatherings of up to 500 people for commemorative events.
Answered on
19 December 2018
The document, National Memorial and Learning Centre: Search for a Central London Site, was published by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation as part of extensive efforts to identify a suitable location for the Memorial and Learning Centre, which also included a thorough search of Central London by property experts CBRE.
More than 50 locations were considered; detailed information supporting the assessment of each site is commercially confidential. The Foundation identified Victoria Tower Gardens as the most fitting site in terms of its historical, emotional and political significance and its ability to offer the greatest potential impact and visibility for the project.
The Government accepted the Foundation’s advice and the Prime Minister announced in January 2016 that Victoria Tower Gardens was the chosen location, Hansard 27 January 2016 col 259. An international design competition was launched in September 2016, seeking proposals for a Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens.