The High Court in London has quashed a British government plan for a Holocaust memorial outside the Houses of Parliament.

Campaigners, led by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, had sought a review of a decision to grant planning permission for the installation of the memorial at Victoria Tower Gardens.

The area was described by the court as having “considerable cultural, historical and heritage significance”.

Public garden

The trust said that the government now had a chance to "reflect and reconsider the best site for a fitting Holocaust memorial".

Mrs Justice Thornton decided that a 1900 act “imposes an enduring obligation to retain Victoria Tower Gardens for use as a public garden”, and that this obligation remained, even after a repeal of much of this legislation in 1965.

The judge ruled that the planning inspector and minister assessed alternative sites for the location of the memorial “without an appreciation of the potential impediment presented by the 1900 act to locating the Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens”.

The memorial, plans for which were announced back in 2016 by former prime minister David Cameron, had been due to open in 2024. It had been set to include 23 bronze fins, and an underground learning centre.