SECRET 360-YEAR-OLD DOORWAY UNCOVERED IN LONDON

Historians working on the renovation of the House of Commons have found a lost 360-year-old passageway, hidden in a secret chamber. The doorway was created for the coronation of Charles II in 1660. This was to allow guests to access a celebratory banquet in Westminster Hall, the building next to the modern day Commons chamber.

Once used many times by British monarchs, it was rediscovered inside Parliament, revealing a piece of history that was thought to have been forever covered up. For centuries, the entrance would have been used by great political luminaries, such as the diarist Samuel Pepys, the first de facto Prime Minister of Great Britain – Robert Walpole – and arch-rivals Charles James Fox and William Pitt the younger.

Leading through to Westminster Hall, it was blocked up on both sides in the mid-19th century as part of renovation works after a fire in Parliament. The route lay untouched for close to a century until it was found by workers carrying out repairs after the building was bombed in World War II.

In an attempt to preserve the restored access, the workers carved a small wooden door into the panelling in the adjacent hallway, but the result turned out to be too discreet. With the passing of time, the door was forgotten and historians thought that the 1950s repair job had blocked access entirely.

When historic consultants from the University of York were trawling through 10,000 uncatalogued documents relating to the palace at the Historic England archives in Swindon. They found plans for the doorway in the cloister behind Westminster Hall.

As they looked at the panelling closely, they realised there was a tiny brass keyhole that no one had noticed before. Believing it might be an electricity cupboard. Once a key was made for it, the panelling opened up.

The team discovered it led to a small room. Inside they found the original hinges for two wooden doors — 11 feet tall and 6 feet wide, that would have opened into Westminster Hall. They were stunned when they found graffiti dating to 1851 on one of the walls.

When the door was blocked up in the 19th century, the Victorian labourers who laid the bricks left behind a personal mark. Scribbled on the wall and still legible today was a note. Part of which read, ‘This room was enclosed by Tom Porter, who was very fond of Ould Ale.’

There was another surprise for the team when they entered the passageway – they were able to light the room. A switch, probably installed in the 1950s following restoration work after the second world war, not only worked but illuminated a large Osram manufactured bulb marked ‘HM Government Property.’

Westminster Hall dates to the 11th century, though most of the Houses of Parliament, also called the Palace of Westminster, was constructed in the mid-1800s. Up until three years ago, the cloister had been used as offices by the Labour Party, and before that, a cloakroom for MPs.

Liz Hallam Smith, historical consultant to Parliament’s architecture and heritage team, said: ‘I was awestruck because it shows that the Palace of Westminster still has so many secrets to give up. It is the way that the Speaker’s procession would have come, on its way to the House of Commons, as well as many MPs over the centuries, so it’s a hugely historic space.’

The current occupant of the Speaker’s chair, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, said: ‘To think that this walkway has been used by so many important people over the centuries is incredible. I am so proud of our staff for making this discovery.’