Bowater House was a 17-floor office block at 68

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

SW1, completed in 1958. The building occupied a site between Knightsbridge and South Carriage Road, at the southern edge of

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

. It was demolished in 2006 and redeveloped by Candy & Candy to create

One Hyde Park One Hyde Park is a major residential and retail complex located in Knightsbridge, London. The development includes three retail units (Rolex, McLaren Automotive and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank) and 86 residential properties marketed with prices starti ...

Construction

A redevelopment of the site had been proposed in the 1930s. The existing buildings were damaged by bombing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and mostly demolished in 1942. The cleared site was ripe for redevelopment after the war, and was acquired by the

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...

Investment Trust. A new building was designed by architects Guy Morgan & Partners as part of a wider but ultimately unrealised plan to create a large rectangular roundabout to the south, similar to

Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contai ...

, which would have included a sunken pedestrian piazza surrounded by commercial buildings and office blocks. As the request of

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

, the project included a widening of Knightsbridge, and the creation of a new dual-carriageway road beneath the building, named Edinburgh Gate after the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

, to provide access to Hyde Park, and also providing access to underground car parks. The building included four main blocks: two slabs of offices oriented east-west to bridge the new road, with an 8-storey block facing the park to the north and a lower parallel block on

piloti Pilotis, or piers, are supports such as columns, pillars, or stilts that lift a building above ground or water. They are traditionally found in stilt and pole dwellings such as fishermen's huts in Asia and Scandinavia using wood, and in ele ...

s facing Knightsbridge to the south, connected by two blocks running north-south to either side of Edinburgh Gate, with the taller one to the west including a tower reaching 17 storeys, some high. The tower was lower than the skyscraper included in the original design, shortened during the planning process to reduce its visual impact when viewed from Hyde Park. After clearing the site in 1956, construction started in 1957 and was completed in 1958. The buildings were constructed by

Taylor Woodrow Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival George Wimpey to create Ta ...

Construction, using a steel frame and concrete cast in situ, clad with polished granite, brick and glass, creating approximately of floor space. It was pre-let as the London headquarters of the Bowater Paper Corporation. Harold Samuel, founder and chairman of Land Securities, commissioned a sculpture from

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produc ...

: his last sculpture '' Rush of Green'' (also known as ''The Bowater House Group'', ''The Return of Spring'', ''The Family'', or ''The Pan Group'') was completed shortly before his death in 1959 and installed in 1961 on a plinth separating the carriageways beneath the building. A maquette of the sculpture was exhibited in the foyer of the building.

Reception

Some critics considered the building to be a good example of

modernist architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

, but others thought it ugly, blocky, and too heavy for its location beside the junction of Knightsbridge and

Sloane Street Sloane Street is a major London street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about halfway along. History Sloane Street takes its name from Sir H ...

. An anecdote reports

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

passing the building in 1959 in a taxi with

Ernő Goldfinger Ernő Goldfinger (11 September 1902 – 15 November 1987) was a Hungarian-born architect and designer of furniture. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, and became a key member of the Modernist architectural movement. He is most prom ...

: Goldfinger gestured towards the building, saying "This is all your fault"; Van der Rohe replied "I was not the architect of that building".

References

External links

postwarbuildings.com

skyscrapernews.com
{{coord, 51.5021, -0.1607, display=title Knightsbridge Buildings and structures completed in 1958 Former buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Office buildings in London 2006 disestablishments in England Demolished buildings and structures in London Buildings and structures demolished in 2006