1980s ‘High-Tech’ Office One of 2021 Listing Highlights
A 1980s ‘High-Tech’ style office by Sir Michael Hopkins, a distinctive Victorian park lodge, and the modernist West Wing of Guildhall are amongst some of the captivating historic sites listed across London in the past year.
21 historic places in London have been added to the National Heritage List for England during 2021. Looking back on the year, Historic England celebrates various sites that have gained protection.
22 Shad Thames, Southwark – listed at Grade II
The development of London’s Docklands in the final 20 years of the 20th century was one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe at the time. Shad Thames was defined by its Victorian warehousing, and in this building, built between 1988 and 1991, important post-war architect Sir Michael Hopkins and his design team set out to compliment this streetscape. It is built in ‘High-Tech’ style, that accentuates a building’s construction.
22 Shad Thames is a simple glazed, concrete-framed box. Its creators took great care in their use of materials, with concrete combining structure, fireproofing and finish. The building features a mix of ‘High-Tech’ cladding, as well as high-specification glazing, distinctive lead panelling and a stair tower constructed of bolted steel plates.
It was built for designer and manufacturer David Mellor, who was very involved its construction, and it was later purchased by Sir Terence Conran, whose firm occupied it until 2020. The building remains in use as offices.
West Wing, Guildhall, City of London – listed at Grade II
The West Wing is an elegant example of modernist civic architecture. It was built between 1970 and 1975 to designs by architect Richard Gilbert Scott for the City of London Corporation to house the Guildhall Library, overnight accommodation for councillors, and meeting rooms.
The building balances a sensitive response to its rich historic setting - alongside the Grade I listed Great Hall and the Church of St Lawrence Jewry - with a strong architectural identity of its own. The distinctive forms and polished concrete finish are a sophisticated and striking addition to Guildhall Yard.
The West Wing is a key part of Richard Gilbert Scott’s most important secular commission and is a significant element of the 20th-century contributions made to the Guildhall site, an ancient civic complex at the centre of London’s governance since at least the late medieval period, by Scott and his father Giles Gilbert Scott. Richard took over the project from his father and prepared a new masterplan, which was approved in 1964. The first phase of his plan was carried out between 1966 and 1969, creating a new piazza to the north of the North Wing and constructing 65 and 65a Basinghall Street (now listed Grade II).
Gate lodge and gateway to Croydon Road Recreation Ground, Beckenham – listed at Grade II
Croydon Road Recreation Ground was established on an area of open farmland in 1890, opening the following year following a local campaign to secure public open space in Beckenham. The opening was a major local event with a celebration that included flags and bunting in Beckenham, the ringing of the church bells and a special schoolchildren’s medal minted for the occasion.
The lodge survives well and compares favourably to listed lodges of the period. It has a circular bay window for the supervision of the park covered by an elegant ogee dome, as well as a wooden veranda and a distinctive pyramidal roof rising to a tall central chimney stack. The main gateway to the park is next to the lodge and forms an architectural grouping with it.
In January 1892 the first park supervisor or ‘Estate Officer’, James George Thomas Baxter, was appointed at a wage of 24 shillings a week plus the use of the lodge. His wife, Lucy, was given permission to serve refreshments to visitors from a window of the lodge. Baxter, formerly a local gardener, held the position of Estate Officer until he retired in the 1920s.
The gate lodge is now a private home.
Pair of cast iron bollards, Keppel Road/Southwark Bridge Road, Southwark – listed at Grade II
The two bollards at the eastern end of Keppel Row date to 1812 and were cast for the Clink Paving Commissioners in the shape of cannon. An Act of 1786 was enacted to regulate the ‘paving, cleansing, lighting, and watching the Streets, Lanes, and other public Passages... within the Manor of Southwark, otherwise called The Clink.’
They are an early dated example of this popular form of manufactured bollard in the shape of cannon, reflecting the earlier use of real cannon as boundaries markers.
Hoop Lane Jewish Cemetery, Golders Green – Registered Park and Garden at Grade II
Hoop Lane Jewish Cemetery is a rare example of a burial site in England shared between two branches of Judaism, jointly managed by West London (Reform) Synagogue and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation (Sephardi). The original southern part remains largely unchanged and is the section that has been registered. The cemetery opened in 1896 and was the primary burial site for both congregations from 1897 to 1973.
The cemetery demonstrates the difference in Jewish burial practices; there is a visual contrast between the upright, predominantly Ashkenazi memorials, and the recumbent Sephardi slabs. The range of tombs and inscriptions also reflects the social and geographical mix of the two communities. The Prayer Hall Building and Entrance Gateway have also both been listed at Grade II.
Hoop Lane is the final resting place of many noteworthy individuals, including Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873 to 1956) who represented German Jews during the Second World War, cellist Jacqueline du Pré (1945 to 1990), and Henry David Davis (1839 to 1915), one of the architects of the prayer hall building.
Henry David Davis and Barrow Emanuel’s Ohel building was designed to provide two funerary prayer halls, one for each community. It was built by 1897 in an eclectic style combining elements of Romanesque, Byzantine and Arts and Crafts styles. Jewish Ohels survive in relatively small numbers; the eastern section of the Hoop Lane building represents the only surviving Ohel in the country dedicated specifically to Sephardi use. The entrance gateway represents a dignified and fitting introduction to the Hoop Lane Cemetery site and has a strong visual and functional relationship with the Ohel.
Three 18th-century Milestones – all listed at Grade II
Milestones, along with mileposts and guideposts, are one of the most widespread forms of street furniture. Roads often undergo considerable alteration so milestones can be of particular note as testaments to the development of our transport network, and as reminders of the different perceptions of distance in a pre-motorised age. Milestones became prevalent in the mid-eighteenth century when turnpike trusts were encouraged to provide such markers along their routes.
The milestone on Rose Hill, Sutton marking 10 miles from Whitehall, is part of a series erected in 1745 by the Surrey and Sussex Turnpike Trust marking distances along the road from Westminster and London Bridge to Banstead Downs. The present inscriptions marking distances to Whitehall and the Royal Exchange were probably added in the early nineteenth century, replacing measurements from The Standard in Cornhill, a water pump that was the earliest measuring point for milestones in London and remained so even after its removal in 1674.
The milestones on Clapham Common South Side, marking 4 miles from Whitehall and 4.5 miles from Whitehall, are also part of a series probably erected in 1745 but later inherited by the Epsom, Ewell and Tooting Turnpike Trust. Many milestones across the country had their inscriptions removed in 1940 following fears of enemy invasion, but were re-inscribed after the end of the Second World War. This may have been the case for one of the milestones by Clapham Common, which has physical evidence of having three of its faces re-carved relatively recently.
