No_1_1956 — Page 64

mixed development on the South Bank site is the first practical example of an interesting and novel conception of height- ening the interest and beauty of London by night as well as by day.

The Shell offices have been designed by Sir Howard Robinson, A.R.A., a past pre- sident of the Royal Institute of British Architects. They will comprise two blocks either side of Charing Cross Railway Viaduct, one upstream and the other

on

downstream.

The "Upstream" block is to be built on three sides of a square with the open side facing the Thames. Consisting of eleven storeys and rising to a height of over 150 feet, it will be dominated by a twenty-six storey tower, over 330 feet high.

The "Downstream" block will comprise an "L"-shaped eleven storey building abutting another of only three storeys, fronting on to Belvedere Road.

The design of the office development has been worked out on

the basis of the L.C.C.'s plan, but in meeting the func- tional requirements of the building, there have naturally been some departures from the bulk and massing of the blocks.

blocks on columns, allowing free passage weathers, so will become more distinct the beneath the buildings across the garden rythmic pattern of cut lines in the stone- courtyard from York Road to Belvedere work relieving the inevitable austerity of Road, and opening up a breadth of vistas many-windowed walls. unexampled in any permanent group of high-level pedestrian walkways, crossing London buildings; the arrangement of

the area between Waterloo Station and the future hotel upstream, and Belvedere Road to the Festival Hall down- stream; the incorporation, on а more handsome scale, of the Underground Booking Hall at present maintained with in the Waterloo Air Terminal.

across

One of the major departures from the original L.C.C. scheme is the abandonment of the Air Terminal which is to be moved to the Cromwell Curve, Kensington site. While this is a loss of an interesting ac-

have

tivity, it may be conceded that the pro- posal for a Terminal building directly op- posite to the National Theatre might well created certain problems of traffic embarrassing to the users of both these important buildings. The other main change is that the plan for the conference centre and exhibition gallery has been abandoned and the site between the Royal Festival Hall and Waterloo Bridge is now intended for a small concert hall.

Included in the office complex are the

The Shell offices will be characteristic in provision of a spacious open square facing their expression of a British contemporary the site of the National Theatre, to be architecture. They will be faced through- treated as

a public space, with planting, out in Portland Store. Reliance is placed shelters, etc. a specially designed form of on mass and fenestration, and the drama, night-time illumination the placing of new to London, of a block of tower-like two flanks of the U-shaped lower office dimensions, But, as the Portland Stone

The downstream building provides its of the curvature of its main spine block. own individual relief through the interest

with its posssiblities of delicate light and shade, and through the introduction of panels of grey-green slate in its framework of Portland Stone. The theme of this

building is similar to that of the compan- ion blocks upstream, but a theme with variations, for the downstream building has no dramatic contrasts of form such as are provided by the Upstream Tower.

The interiors of these buildings are being designed according to the most up-to-date able working spaces. They will offer all concepts of providing efficient and agree- the amenities for meals, rest and recreat- ion which are consonant with their scale and scope as the central offices in London of a large commercial organisation.

Commencement of the main construc- ture of the National Film Theatre at mid- tional programme must await the depar-

summer 1957 and British European Air- ways in September 1957, and the demoji- tion of their existing temporary buildings.

On completion, the new buildings will accommodate Shell's London staff at pre- sent numbering some 5.500 persons, and now scattered in numerous buildings over a wide area of the City and West End.

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