This work, in addition to the tens of thousands of hours of planning and visual inspection research completed since 2018 will inform decisions about essential restoration work of the historic Palace of Westminster.
Throughout the 7,500 hours many important findings have been made, including the unearthing of an intricately carved 200-year-old fish made from animal bone. The fish, a gaming counter possibly used in 18th Century card games, was found by Roland Tillyer, Senior Geoarchaeologist at Museum of London Archaeology whilst monitoring the digging of a borehole deep in the earth under the House of Lords’ Royal Court.
Other discoveries included identifying the position of hidden voids that were built as ventilation shafts in the original design, condition of critical utilities, sampling of building materials, heating, cooling, and mechanical and electrical systems that have reached the end of their lifespan.
The find follows the possible discovery of a section of the original medieval Thames River wall in November 2022, that is believed to run underneath the length of the Houses of Parliament.
David Goldstone, CEO of the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority, said:
“We continue to make exciting and historic discoveries as we survey the Palace of Westminster. This major milestone of 7,500 hours of completed intrusive surveying work is a testament to the hard work of the hundreds of specialists brought in from across the UK, helping us in this national effort to save the iconic Palace of Westminster for future generations.
“We’ll take the important data from this extensive research to inform our future restoration plans for the building, ensuring that we tackle critical issues and preserve and protect the building and the thousands of staff and visitors that use the building every day.”
Michael Marshall, MOLA Finds Team Leader said:
“This carved bone fish is a gaming counter. Counters like this were commonly used at gaming tables in Britain during the 18th and 19th century and were used as tokens for scoring.
“A famous literary description of this practice comes from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (published in 1813) where Lydia Bennet is described as winning and losing fish while playing games of ‘lottery tickets”.
Diane Abrams, Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Programme, Archaeology Lead said:
“It is amazing that this wonderful gaming token was found while monitoring a single borehole through archaeological deposits at Royal Court.
“It certainly highlights the value of the Palace’s ‘hidden’ archaeology beneath its buildings and spaces and how even a single find such as this can contribute to its overall sense of history and our literary past.
Additional information on the Restoration and Renewal
The Palace of Westminster is enormous and complex – the size of 16 football pitches, with the whole building sharing the same water, electric, sewage and gas system. Many of these services are 50+ years old and have reached the end of their lifespan. Hundreds of miles of pipes and cables need replacing.
Currently there are dozens of major projects underway to repair and restore key parliamentary buildings by in-house parliamentary teams but the scale of the challenge means more extensive restoration and renewal is needed as part of the overall plan for the Parliamentary buildings.
In July 2022 Members of both Houses agreed there needs to be a more aligned and integrated approach to this future restoration, prioritising safety critical work.
Therefore a wide range of options are being developed by the Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority for how the restoration work will be delivered and the level of ambition for restoration work. This will include variations on the time and extent to which Members and staff are asked to move out of the Palace to allow complex construction work to take place. The volume and future scope of the main restoration works are not yet certain until approval is given by Members of both Houses to costed proposals and in advance of this Members will be asked to vote on a strategic case by the end of 2023.
Additional information on discovery of the fish counter
Fish counters were made in a variety of materials and styles, including elaborately decorated mother-of-pearl examples imported from China. The example discovered in the Royal Court of the Palace of Westminster could have been made locally or imported. It was made from a solid piece of bone, most likely from shaft of a limb bone from a cow, horse, or similarly sized animal.
The fish counter has been whittled to shape and polished, the mouth is cut with a saw and the ‘ring-and-dot’ eye was inscribed with a centre bit tool or compass. The eye may originally have been filled with black wax, or a similar dark substance, to stand out against the white/cream colour of the bone.
