My old office ....
And since 1929 that of countless other people who have served London Transport as this is the view, not often seen, from the west of 55 Broadway the now vacant and sold headquarter's building of transport in London. Built over St James's Park tube station and on a site associated with the Underground's main offices since the 1880s the current Grade 1 Listed building was designed by the Group's consultant architect Charles Holden under the patronage of Frank Pick. Described as "London's First Skyscaper" it was very American in detailing and construction and was the tallest secular building in London for several decades. Holden, working with a difficult site both in terms of shape and location, chose to construct a series of stepbacks on all of the four wings, moving the focus of the structure towards the 13 storey tower that dominates the structure. Steel framed and clad in Portland stone the quite austere exterior is detailed incredibly well - Holden knew that the stone would weather in certain ways and chose to accentuate the details to allow this. There are also eight in-situ sculptures at seventh floor level, two each of the 'four winds'. They are by a total of six artists (including three by Eric Gill and a superb one by Henry Moore) and these compliment the two scultures on the ground floor podium by Jacob Epstein. The architecture is very Holden - an Arts & Crafts man with a strong classicist puritanism, and there are many echoes of his earlier works such as for the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission. Having been involved with Holden's buildings for nearly 30 years this isn't an 'art deco' building but more restrained. Oddly the next three years would see his work go two ways for his two major clients; the University of London got this building writ large in Bloomsbury whilst for the Underground (to become London Transport in 1933) they got a stunning series of buildings that took much from contemporary North European architecture both in terms of style and materiality - against, lttle detail but all about massing, proportionality and the handling of interior space and light.
Anyhow - its not just my old office now as the building has been vacated and so a long chapter in the history of London Transport comes to an end and TfL just fades into some sort of architectural miasma. Behind can be seen the skyline of Westminster and the South Bank - LT used to be at the centre of things!
My old office ....
And since 1929 that of countless other people who have served London Transport as this is the view, not often seen, from the west of 55 Broadway the now vacant and sold headquarter's building of transport in London. Built over St James's Park tube station and on a site associated with the Underground's main offices since the 1880s the current Grade 1 Listed building was designed by the Group's consultant architect Charles Holden under the patronage of Frank Pick. Described as "London's First Skyscaper" it was very American in detailing and construction and was the tallest secular building in London for several decades. Holden, working with a difficult site both in terms of shape and location, chose to construct a series of stepbacks on all of the four wings, moving the focus of the structure towards the 13 storey tower that dominates the structure. Steel framed and clad in Portland stone the quite austere exterior is detailed incredibly well - Holden knew that the stone would weather in certain ways and chose to accentuate the details to allow this. There are also eight in-situ sculptures at seventh floor level, two each of the 'four winds'. They are by a total of six artists (including three by Eric Gill and a superb one by Henry Moore) and these compliment the two scultures on the ground floor podium by Jacob Epstein. The architecture is very Holden - an Arts & Crafts man with a strong classicist puritanism, and there are many echoes of his earlier works such as for the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission. Having been involved with Holden's buildings for nearly 30 years this isn't an 'art deco' building but more restrained. Oddly the next three years would see his work go two ways for his two major clients; the University of London got this building writ large in Bloomsbury whilst for the Underground (to become London Transport in 1933) they got a stunning series of buildings that took much from contemporary North European architecture both in terms of style and materiality - against, lttle detail but all about massing, proportionality and the handling of interior space and light.
Anyhow - its not just my old office now as the building has been vacated and so a long chapter in the history of London Transport comes to an end and TfL just fades into some sort of architectural miasma. Behind can be seen the skyline of Westminster and the South Bank - LT used to be at the centre of things!