The BT Tower (previously GPO Tower / Post Office
Tower / Telecom Tower). When it was finished in 1964, it was the tallest
building in the United Kingdom at a 177 metres high (the top of the BT Tower can be glimpsed behind Somerset House in the pic below).
Temple Pier is situated below it, on the north bank.
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| A sign on the south bank, still showing Howard Hotel and Electra House. |
In-between is Arundel House, the 19th century “Tudor
Revival” red brick building, with red brick chimneys (see pic below). Today, it is the HQ for
the International Institute for Strategic Studies (research in international
relations.) In the Middle Ages, there used to be a palace or town house here,
for the Bishop of Bath & Wells. In the 16th century, it was in the hands of
the 12th Earl of Arundel. The place changed again in the 17th c, I think. The
engraver Wenceslaus Hollar lived here, in that period. Born in Prague, he worked
for the 21st Earl of Arundel, and died in London, in poverty - he
was buried at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster. Hollar’s drawings are now extremely
renowned and many of them highlight London’s landmarks, before the Great Fire
of 1666 (some examples in this blog).
Moored in front of The Globe House is HQS Wellington, headquarters ship of
the Honourable Company of Master Mariners. Previously known as HMS Wellington
(Royal Navy 1934-1947), she was used as convoy escort in the North Atlantic
during WWII.
I believe the little park nearby is called Victoria Embankment Gardens. The building sticking out behind it, with a spire and rose window is The Royal Courts of Justice.
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1646 engraving by Adam Bierling,
showing parts of Arundel House
(from a drawing by Wenceslaus Hollar).
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| New Electra House (built 1933) which stood where The Globe House is now - and HQS Wellington. |
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Memorial wooden bench on the South Bank,
in the memory of
three 19 year old friends from South London,
who died together in Thailand, in
a bus crash, in 2011
“The Thames will carry her sons forever…”
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This part of the South Bank is called Gabriel’s Wharf and
features a sandy beach where people sunbathe and build sand castles.
Across the river, there are many outstanding and
historical buildings worth noting. Behind the green trees of Inner Temple
Gardens, and near the Royal Courts of Justice, is The Inner Temple, Inns of
Courts (legal training for lawyers since 14th c.) – the name come
from the Knights Templar who owned that land.
Right of that, is the listed gabled building Hamilton
House (1880-1899) in white Portland stone – it doesn’t show well here, as it
seems to blend with the next one across Temple Avenue, Telephone House (1900)
restored and also listed (originally built for the National Telephone Company,
now office space - read more further down).
One of the dark towers in the far distance is part of The
Barbican Centre (1970) – a performing art centre with theatres, library, music
conservatory, restaurants, exhibition halls, home of the London Symphony
Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Shakespeare Company - another
Brutalist architectural example, this one funded by the City of London
Corporation as a gift to the nation.
The other buildings along that part of Victoria
Embankment are better seen in pics further down.
Of course, the eye gets drawn to the massive dome of St
Paul’s Cathedral and, beyond the bridges,
the skyscrapers in The City of London financial district – from here the
“Walkie-Talkie” stands out the most (more about it, later in this blog).
Meanwhile, on the south bank, the view includes the OXO Tower - originally known as Stamford Wharf, at one point, London’s second highest commercial building. The OXO beef cube logo was incorporated in the design, as windows, to get around a ban on “sky advertising.” Art Deco from 1929. The spire is part of the red Oxo Tower Wharf building which houses shops, restaurants, galleries and flats (see below).
The tall glass tube is South Bank Tower – Modernist in
style with floor-to-ceiling glass windows in every apartment, it is 151 metres
high since 2015. It was extended by 10 storeys and changed its name from King’s
Reach Tower. Though is it only half the height of The Shard (which is very near
behind it), from this angle, it totally hides it from view.
The London Studios for ITV are situated here.
We continued our walk, along a narrowing walkway, passing
two old-looking wooden jetties, the OXO Tower and the adjacent Sea Containers
House - now The Mondrian Hotel – the letters at the top of the building can be
spotted in profile here, if one knows where to l👀k
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Don’t we all make sandcastles like those? 🏰
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As mentioned previously, the north bank features plenty
of interesting architecture and in fact, the riverside there is collectively
part of the Whitefriars Conservation Area.
Next to Telephone House is Audit House (red brick, with
white stone detailing) which was demolished in 2013 approximately – except for
the seven-storey façade – to erect a new nine storey office block behind. It
had been formerly occupied by the Employment Tribunal Service, but was
purchased by the City of London Corporation in 2012.
The more modern front next door is Carmelite House, a
listed building, home to the large publishing group Hachette UK.
Looking east, all the way to the bridge, 3 more listed
buildings: former Sion College, former City of London School and Unilever House
(described further down).
Tiles on the footpath
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In the shadow of the Mondrian London Boutique Hotel at Sea
Containers.
The bridge with quite a few red double-decker buses is
Blackfriars Bridge.
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Large lion’s heads with mooring ring in their mouth (?)
below each lamppost on the other side of the river.
I don’t know if it is also
the case on the south bank,
as I didn’t check and only noticed the lions’ heads
now!
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^ The red-brick Victorian building with Gothic-like features
is the former Sion College (built 1886) now offices.
The white building with cupolas on the roof and sculpted
figures around the second floor windows is the former City of London School -
built in 1882 and used by the institution until 1987, when it moved to a modern
red brick building near The Millennium Bridge.
The curved building on the corner is Unilever House.
Neoclassical Art Deco (completed in 1931 for Lord Leverhulme and his Level
Brothers company). It looks very striking with 16 three-storey-high Ionic columns, high up above the 3rd floor. |
1550s copperplate showing Bridewell Palace.
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The former City of London School casting a shadow over Unilever
House.
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^ This entrance to Unilever House is a monumental plinth with a colossal and enigmatic
statue of a woman pulling on the reins of a horse. There is the figure of a man,
doing the same thing, on the other side of the horse, but I could only get this
angle with the long lens. The sculpture is called Controlled Energy and there
is another very similar one at the opposite entrance to the building (the other
end of the curved frontage) which may give the impression that the horses are trying
to stretch the building around the bend. The sculptor was Sir William Reid Dick,
whereas the mermaid and merman above the two respective doors were carved by Gilbert
Ledward.
The imposing size of St Paul’s Cathedral, still 15 minutes
away on foot, Blackfriars Millennium Pier and Blackfriars Bridge - this part of
London is called Blackfriars after the Dominican Friars who moved in the rea in
the 14th century.
The white tarpaulin is hiding the slightly curved front
of the 2012 Blackfriars Underground Station, whereas on the other side of St Paul’s
Cathedral, we can see the top part of the large Faraday Building (green roof,
on Queen Victoria Street, see further down).
Lovely detail on the short columns that decorate the
piers of Blackfriars Bridge. Carved by John Birnie Philip, the capitals feature
plants and freshwater birds on this upstream side and marine life and seabirds
on the downstream columns.
In 1769 a toll bridge was built here in Portland Stone.
It was replaced in 1869 by the current wrought iron bridge, designed by Joseph
Cubitt (it was widened in 1910).
In Terry Gilliam’s 2009 movie The Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus, Tony, played by Heath Ledger, is found hanging under Blackfriars
Bridge; an homage to Italian banker Roberto Calvi who was found dead here in
1982.
Named after the scientist who first explained
electromagnetism, the Faraday Building (green roof, one block from the
riverside) was the GPO’s first telephone exchange in London, in 1902, and it
quickly ran at full capacity. In 1933, it saw the opening of the international
telephone exchange and thus “became the telephone centre of the world.”
During WWII, the Faraday Building was adapted as a refuge for
the Cabinet and the Prime Minister in case they had to take cover.
Interestingly, after it was noted that the Faraday
Building obscured the riverside view of St Paul’s Cathedral, legislation was
put into place to prevent the construction of buildings higher than three levels
above ground, in the local area, to protect the sight-lines to the cathedral.
This height restriction applied to Baynard House and the new
City of London School, both on the north bank of the river, after the
Blackfriars set of bridges (see further down).
The 3 tallest buildings in the City of London financial
district:
Tower 42 is the
darkest skyscraper on the left of this pic (183 metres) it was called the
NatWest Tower in 1980;
the 2010 Heron
Tower (202 metres) is the blueish one with the silvery spike (total height
230 metres), its official name is 110 Bishopsgate;
on the right of the pic is the 2014 Leadenhall Building or 122 Leadenhall Street (225 metres) already
nicknamed The Cheesegrater and which hides in part The Gherkin, officially: 30 St Mary Axe (180 metres).
The 2014 Walkie-Talkie
(proper name: 20 Fenchurch Street) is 160 metres high.
More about the skyscrapers in the City, later in this
blog
From here, one notices the succession of piers and bridges
at Blackfriars. Behind the road and pedestrian Blackfriars Bridge is
Blackfriars Railway Bridge and in between them, the remnants of a previous
railway bridge.
Blackfriars Railway Bridge is the structure covered in
black panels. In 2012 I think, as part of the Thameslink Programme, a roof was
installed recently and covered with solar panels, making the bridge the largest
of only three solar bridges in the world. The platforms were also extended to cover
the whole length of the bridge and therefore the width of the river.
Pedestrian tunnel under Blackfriars Bridge. This illustration
shows the first Blackfriars Bridge from 1769, made of stone.
Built by Robert Mylne, in “Italianate style,” with 9
semi-elliptical arches, it took 9 years to complete – it does look extravagant
and over complicated.
This shows the 1869 new bridge by Cubitt, made of iron.
He had also designed the adjacent rail bridge in 1864 and had wanted the piers
and spans of the two structures to be perfectly aligned.
They would still be aligned - these remaining piers can
hardly be seen from a distance – but the Cubitt rail bridge was removed in 1985
as it had become too weak for modern trains.
One can also see how the current Blackfriars Railway
Bridge is partially supported by some of the 1864 bridge piers (not painted
red, but white) – this was done when the platforms were extended in 2012 or so.
This abutment has been restored and is now a listed
structure; it carries the railway insignia. There used to be another one at the
other end of the old bridge.
Passing under Blackfriars Railway Bridge (the extension
on the left hand-side can easily be seen).
The two first buildings one faces across the river, after
emerging from under the bridge, had their height restricted not to block the
view of St Paul’s cathedral, as explained previously.
The charcoal building on the left is Baynard House (see better
pic below), the red building has been the site of the City of London School since
the 1980s. The Millennium Bridge leads straight to it but hardly shows in this
pic (not too worry, I took more photos of it when we got close...) 😄 📷
Baynard House, a Brutalist office block built in 1979 and occupied
by BT Group. It was also a telephone exchange. Right behind is the Faraday
Building, hiding parts of St Paul’s Cathedral, indeed.
The solar panels above the platforms of the Blackfriars Railway
Bridge.
Behind Blackfriars bridges, one can still see the curved
Unilever House. The spire nearby is St Bride’s Church, designed by Sir Christopher
Wren - the second tallest of all Wren's churches, after of course St Paul’s
Cathedral.
And of course, behind Baynard House, the Faraday Building
and its green roof is hiding another part of St Paul’s…
Next post:
http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/shakespeares-globe-tate-modern.html
http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/shakespeares-globe-tate-modern.html
