British government conference venue in St James's where the Northern, Western, Eastern and Cameroons delegations negotiated the constitutional architecture that became Independence Nigeria — including the federal structure, the regional self-government calendar, and the 1960 Constitution.
Lancaster House, a 19th-century neoclassical mansion behind St James's Palace, has hosted nearly every constitutional negotiation of British decolonisation. For Nigeria, three rounds mattered.
1953 — the Macpherson Constitution had collapsed under the strain of the Kano riots and the Eastern Region crisis. Oliver Lyttelton convened delegations from the three Regions and Lagos to redesign the federation. The 1953 Conference produced the Lyttelton Constitution (1954), which made the Regions the primary political units, gave them control of their public services, and left the federal centre comparatively narrow.
1957 — the West and East asked for self-government. The Conference produced the timetable: Western and Eastern Regions self-governing in 1957, Northern Region in 1959, federal independence to follow.
1958 — the final Constitutional Conference settled the independence document. Delegates included Tafawa Balewa, Awolowo, Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello and the Cameroons representatives. The 1960 Constitution emerged from this round; Nigeria became independent on 1 October 1960 with the document agreed at Lancaster House as its foundation.
The building still stands and is still used by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for high-level diplomatic events. Every reference to 'the Lancaster House model' in African constitutional debates traces back to these rooms.