The tragedy of Notre Dame should be a warning – we need to look after what was built by past generations

The British parliament has been due an expensive refurbishment for decades, but MPs have repeatedly put off making decisions. As a result it has become, instead, a metaphor for the failures of our political leaders

The world watched in horror as one of the greatest symbols of civilisation burned. The cathedral of Notre Dame was a remarkable flowering of the Gothic style, with its high arched roofs and flying buttresses. It is a monument to the ambition, piety, technological advance and splendour of the high middle ages.

One estimate suggests that building the cathedral absorbed about one-fifth of the economic resources of the Paris basin for a century and a half, 1100 to 1250. It was built to last forever, and it was heartbreaking to watch such ancient grandeur consumed by the flames.

Despite many of us knowing that the spire was a 19th-century addition, it was still terrible to see it fall. Even as we know today that most of the structure has survived, along with most of the treasures within, the world joins Paris and France in mourning.

The pain of witnessing the destruction must be a goad to us all and a reminder of our obligation to protect what we have inherited and to pass it on in good condition to those who come after us.

For the British, our eyes are bound to turn first to Westminster Abbey, a similar building influenced by Notre Dame’s architecture, with the same spireless two towers at one end – part of our common Norman French heritage.

“Fires in historic buildings are unfortunately common,” said Ptolemy Dean, surveyor of the fabric at the abbey. In recent years, we British have had fires at York Minster (1984), Windsor Castle (1992) and the Glasgow School of Art (2014 and 2018). Mr Dean was confident in the abbey’s precautions against fire, noting it has more stone and less wood than Notre Dame.

But then we have to look across the road to the Houses of Parliament. Most of the Palace of Westminster is rather recent, built in the 19th century after another great fire in 1834. Modern as most of it is, it stands as a global symbol of democracy – and the estate includes, in Westminster Hall, a monument as old and precious as Notre Dame. The hall was the largest in Europe when it was built in 1097, and yesterday’s tragedy ought to induce a sense of urgency in making sure it is safe.

The threat to it, paradoxically, comes from the later buildings around it: Charles Barry’s palace in the “Gothic revival” style, completed in 1870. The Houses of Parliament have been due an expensive refurbishment for decades, but MPs have repeatedly put off making decisions that are bound to lead to accusations of spending money on themselves.

As a result, the parliamentary estate has become, instead, a metaphor for the failures of our political leaders, with a sitting of the House of Commons suspended this month when rainwater started to cascade into the chamber.

The estate is a known fire risk, and it is now high time our legislators decanted to temporary premises to allow the buildings to be made safe. After the terrible warning in Paris, MPs should delay this necessary preservation of our national heritage no longer.