27 April 1987: The opening day of the inquiry into the capsizing of
the Herald of Free Enterprise on 6 March 1987 when 187 people lost their lives.
The meeting halls in Church House have also been widely used for a variety of conferences, tribunals and inquiries since 1948. Before the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen, press conferences were given by the Minister of Works, the Earl Marshal and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and on Coronation Day the House was used by the Bishops and other guests. In 1965, the Earl Marshal held a press conference on the day following the death of Sir Winston Churchill.
A number of prominent Government inquiries have been held in the Assembly Hall, including the 'Comet' and the Bank Rate 'Leak' Inquiries of the 1950s and the more recent tribunals inquiring into the Brixton riots, the building of an atomic power station at Sizewell in Suffolk, The Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster at Zeebrugge and the loss of the SS Derbyshire in the South China Sea. Most recently the latter stages of the inquiry into the fire at King's Cross tube station have been held in the building.
