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Formerly private dining spaces at the heart of UK government will again be opened to the public, as a pop-up restaurant returns to Parliament.
The House of Commons's Members’ Dining Room and Strangers’ Dining Room at the Palace of Westminster in London, will be open for lunch and dinner from February onwards, at times when parliament is not sitting. The pop-up scheme was originally launched last year.
According to the UK Parliament website, diners can expect “seasonal ingredients from across the United Kingdom” prepared by an “in house team of award winning chefs," with of course, a side of palpable political history – the Members’ Dining Room dates back to 1871, the Strangers’ to 1867 as a dining space. Also, “white tablecloths and political themed art-lined walls. High painted ceilings, huge windows that look out over the Commons Terrace and carved oak panelled walls."
Above: the Members' Dining Room. Photo: www.parliament.co.uk
Those booked in for the Members' Dining Room can enjoy a pre-dinner drink in the "resplendent" Pugin Room, named after the Palace’s former interior designer, Augustus Welby Pugin. The Palace you see today dates back to 1834.
The pop-up is fully booked at time of writing, though new tables will be released later this week, according to the events team. A fixed-price lunch will cost £45, dinner £65. Click here for reservations.
According to The Sun, organisers have a Michelin star in their sights and will also be permitting more wedding receptions at the Palace, as they look to fundraise to end much maligned taxpayer subsidies for Parliament’s bars.
Top photo: By lorentey (Flickr.com) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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