A Pugin-style smoking shelter is being planned for the House of Commons to help protect the palace's puffers from the vagaries of the British winter.
The Commons' authorities are talking to English Heritage and Westminster city council about how to build a "simple and reasonably priced" shelter.
Although the smoking ban, introduced last July, does not apply to the Palace of Westminster, MPs and peers agreed among themselves to extend the law to the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Some smokers are said to light up (illegally) in the privacy of their own office.
But those who dutifully troop outside for a cigarette can currently use three, uncovered sites – on the Commons terrace, the small yard between two blocks of offices for MPs and their staff - Portcullis House and Norman Shaw South building - and part of the Speaker's garden.
But following a number of complaints from smokers forced to light up in the biting wind and rain, the Commons' administration committee has been charged with working with the heritage authorities to design a shelter that would be in keeping with the Palace's Pugin style.
"We have had a number of complaints, or should I say that people have raised the issue, that the smoking areas are all exposed and in the open air. We're therefore looking at providing some form of smoking shelter," said Frank Doran MP, the administration committee chairman.
Doran said no budget for the shelter had been fixed. However, he did say that since designing a suitable permanent shelter may take some time, a temporary one could be built in the mean time.
One MP said the wait would be worth it. "It's going to be the Taj Mahal of all smoking shelters and could be the country's first neo gothic smoking shelter," he enthused.
