THE bodies of dead chimney sweep boys could still be lying in Parliament, an MP has warned.
Experts examining the crumbling Palace of Westminster told MPs there is “a possibility” that some of the ‘climbing boys’ who were deployed to go up the chimneys in the 19th century could have died up there.
Alamy
Boys as young as four were deployed to go up and down the chimneys when the Grade 1 listed Palace was built in 1870.
Labour MP Meg Hillier said the joint-Parliamentary committee she sits on that oversees the multi-billion renovation of the building will investigate whether unfound bodies could still be in the building.
She said there could be “all sorts of unknown things that we will find on the way”.
The MP vowed to hold burial funerals for any skeletons found – but said it was unlikely they would be able to identify their name because of a lack of records.
Ms Hillier told Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “I’ve recently been told that there’s a possibility that when this was of course built it was Victorian times, they used climbing boys to go up chimneys and I’ve heard – there’s a rumour – that there may be still little dead climbing boys up some of the chimneys.
“I’m investigating that but that’s an example of how long it is really since it’s been looked at wholesale.”
The Palace of Westminster is set to close in the middle of the 2020s as it undergoes a massive restoration programme, estimated currently to take at least six years and will cost taxpayers up to £6billion.
But MPs won’t move out before the next scheduled election in 2022.
