The United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is a government project being delivered by the Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) with a total project budget of GBP 102 million, of which HM Government has committed GBP 75 million, with the balance being raised through private donations.
The Memorial is dedicated to the 6 million Jewish men, women and children who lost their lives in the Holocaust and to all other victims of the Nazis and their collaborators.
The new Learning Centre will honour and remember all victims and survivors of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides and will educate future generations on the importance of fighting prejudice and persecution in all its forms.
The project has cross party support and is within the Government Estate Strategy for Westminster, as part of Enhancing the Heart of London.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-estate-strategy-2018
Victoria Tower Gardens has been chosen as the home for the Memorial and Learning Centre. New gardens will be provided back to the community with the vast majority of the park's green space retained and enhanced. Views over Parliament and the river Thames will be improved with a range of accessible seating and a new boardwalk along the embankment. A planning application was submitted in December 2018 and, following a Ministerial call-in in November 2019, will be subject to a Public Inquiry in May/June 2020.
The Memorial and Learning Centre will be an iconic memorial and powerful educational experience, welcoming visitors from the UK and beyond to learn and reflect.
The Memorial and Learning Centre consists of 23 bronze fins to the southern end of the Gardens. Visitors will walk through an entrance pavilion, then across a courtyard where they will be confronted with views of Parliament's Victoria Tower. The Learning Centre, accessed by pathways set between the fins, is an integral part of the Memorial. The Learning Centre is set out over two below ground floors.
Subject to planning permission being granted following the aforementioned inquiry process, the authority is looking for contractors (main contractors and specialist subcontractors) and suppliers to construct all aspects of the Memorial and Learning Centre project.
It is envisaged that construction of the Memorial and Learning Centre project will be divided into five packages:
1) Enabling works package:
— Horseferry Playground — relocation of existing playground equipment,
— removal of existing café kiosk,
— removal and relocation of Spicer Memorial,
— removal of existing redundant buried services,
— relocation of existing buried services,
— installation of new buried services,
— heavy vehicle mitigation barrier footings,
— bus stop improvement works;
2) Learning Centre basement box package:
— site clearance,
— piling/foundation works,
— archaeological excavation works,
— general excavation,
— dewatering,
— below slab lift pits and sump pits,
— below slab services,
— steel plunge columns,
— concrete capping beam works,
— concrete propping beams,
— temporary steel propping beams,
— concrete podium slab (part) roof of the Learning Centre;
3) Memorial bronze fins package:
— buildability guidance and design advice,
— production of shop drawings, fabrication and construction of a prototype (benchmark) bronze fin panel,
— develop shop drawings, fabricate, supply and install 23 bronze fins to the Memorial;
4) Memorial and Learning Centre main works package:
— All construction works following on from the basement box package to complete the Memorial and Learning Centre.
Note that this package will include works to the entrance pavilion, courtyard, memorial, learning centre, landscaping to Victoria Tower Gardens, café/kiosk and improvement works to Horseferry playground.
5) Learning Centre Fit Out package:
— works to supply, install and commission the fit out of the Learning Centre content, including furniture fittings and equipment and audio visual equipment.