Bracken House is a building at 1

Friday Street Friday Street is a hamlet on the gentle lower north slope of Leith Hill in Surrey, England. It is in a wooded headwater ravine, just to the south of Wotton and the A25, a single rather than dual carriageway road, running between Guildford to ...

and 10

Cannon Street Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the south of the City. It is the site of the ancient London S ...

in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, occupied by the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' newspaper until the 1980s, and again beginning May 2019. A late example of modern classicism, it was constructed from 1955 to 1958 to a design by Sir

Albert Richardson Sir Albert Edward Richardson (London, 19 May 1880 – 3 February 1964) was a leading English architect, teacher and writer about architecture during the first half of the 20th century. He was Professor of Architecture at University College Lon ...

to serve as the

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

and printing works of the ''Financial Times'', on a cleared bomb site southeast of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

. The central part of the building was substantially altered to plans by Michael Hopkins and Partners between 1988 and 1992. After refurbishments by

John Robertson Architects John Robertson Architects (JRA) is an architectural practice based in Bankside, London, which was founded by its Director John Robertson in 1993. The practice concentrates on the design and implementation of new build, retrofit, historic refurbish ...

, the ''Financial Times'' moved back into Bracken House in spring 2019. It became a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1987 – the first building built after

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in England to become listed – and was upgraded to Grade II* in 2013.

Background

New offices were required for the ''Financial Times'' after it merged with the ''

Financial News ''Financial News'' is a financial newspaper and news website published in London. It is a weekly newspaper, published by eFinancial News Limited, covering the financial services sector through news, views and extensive people coverage. ''Fin ...

'' in 1945. The building was named after

Brendan Bracken Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, PC (15 February 1901 – 8 August 1958) was an Irish-born businessman, politician and a minister in the British Conservative cabinet. He is best remembered for supporting Winston Churchill during ...

, who became Viscount Bracken in 1952. The building was clad in pink sandstone from

Hollington, Staffordshire Hollington is a village in the Staffordshire Moorlands in English county of Staffordshire. There are several villages of this same name, and there is a Hollington, Derbyshire a few miles to the east in Derbyshire. The population taken at the 20 ...

, as an allusion to the characteristic pink colour of the newspaper, with red bricks and bronze windows, contrasting with the

verdigris Verdigris is the common name for blue-green, copper-based pigments that form a patina on copper, bronze, and brass. The technical literature is ambiguous as to its chemical composition. Some sources refer to "neutral verdigris" as copper(II) ac ...

of the copper roof. Editorial offices were located in the northern range, beside Cannon Street, with printing machinery in an octagonal structure in the centre between Friday Street and Distaff Lane, and more offices to the south, by Queen Victoria Street. Above the entrance on Cannon Street is an

astronomical clock An astronomical clock, horologium, or orloj is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the Sun, Moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets. Definition ...

, designed by

Frank Dobson Frank Gordon Dobson (15 March 1940 – 11 November 2019) was a British Labour Party politician. As Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St. Pancras from 1979 to 2015, he served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health from 1997 ...

and Philip Bentham and made by

Thwaites & Reed Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks datin ...

. The clock features the face of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

at the centre of a large gold sunburst, Churchill having been a great friend of Viscount Bracken during the war.

1980s redevelopment

Like other newspapers, the ''Financial Times'' moved out of central London in the 1980s, and the printing works closed in 1988. The building was sold by

Pearson Pearson may refer to: Organizations Education *Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada *Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC *Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation) Companies *Pearson PLC, a UK-based int ...

in 1987. In August 1987 Bracken House became one of the first post-war buildings in England to become a Listed Building, (in the illustrious company of works such as Lord Foster's Willis Faber and Dumas Building, Ipswich, England of 1975), to prevent it being demolished and replaced by a new glass and steel building proposed by Michael Hopkins and Partners (the post-war

Brynmawr Rubber Factory The Brynmawr rubber factory is a now-demolished building which was situated in Brynmawr in Blaenau Gwent, Wales. It was designed and constructed between 1946 and 1952 by the Architects' Co-Partnership, a group of architecture alumni from the Arch ...

was listed in 1985 by the

Welsh Office The Welsh Office ( cy, Swyddfa Gymreig) was a department in the Government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Wales. It was established in April 1965 to execute government policy in Wales, and was headed by the Secretary of State f ...

). The plans were changed to incorporate the old building, redeveloped by

Obayashi Corporation is one of five major Japanese construction companies along with Shimizu Corporation, Takenaka Corporation, Kajima Corporation, and Taisei Corporation. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is one of the Nikkei 225 corporations. Its head ...

between 1988 and 1992. The altered building retained the old ranges to the north and south, but replaced the central printing hall with a new glass and structural

gunmetal Gun metal, also known as red brass in the United States, is a type of bronze; an alloy of copper, tin and zinc. Proportions vary but 88% copper, 8–10% tin, and 2–4% zinc is an approximation. Originally used chiefly for making guns, it has la ...

structure on a Hollington sandstone plinth, with boxy

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

s inspired by

Oriel Chambers Oriel Chambers is an office building located on Water Street near the town hall in Liverpool, England. It was the world's first building featuring a metal framed glass curtain wall, which has since become a defining feature of skyscrapers aro ...

in Liverpool (constructed in 1864). With its main entrance now at 1 Friday Street to the east, the building was altered to include large open offices and trading floors for the European head office of the

Industrial Bank of Japan The Industrial Bank of Japan, Limited (IBJ), based in Tokyo, Japan, was one of the largest banks in the world during the latter half of the 20th century. It combined with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Fuji Bank in 2002 to form Mizuho Financial Group ...

, which combined with

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank , abbreviated as , was one of the largest banks in the world during the latter half of the 20th century. Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was created in 1971 by a consortium of two banks: Dai-Ichi Bank, Japan's oldest bank, and Nippon Kangyo Bank, a state fin ...

and

Fuji Bank The was one of Japan's major banks during the post–World War II era. It combined with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan in 2000 to form Mizuho Financial Group, and changed its name to Mizuho Corporate Bank in 2002 after t ...

in 2002 to form

Mizuho Financial Group , abbreviated as MHFG, or simply called Mizuho, is a banking holding company headquartered in the Ōtemachi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The name "" literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. Upon ...

, the third largest bank in Japan. The Hopkins additions were included in the Grade II* listing in 2013. In 2019 the ''Financial Times'' relocated from its offices at

Southwark Bridge Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the Thames bridges in Londo ...

back to Bracken House. File:Bracken House in Cannon Street - geograph.org.uk - 881698.jpg, Looking east along Cannon Street File:EH1262582 Bracken House 04.jpg, North east corner, where Friday Street meets Cannon Street File:EH1262582 Bracken House 03.jpg, The east façade on Friday Street, from the south-east, looking north-west File:EH1262582 Bracken House 01.jpg, The south façade from Queen Victoria Street File:EH1262582 Bracken House 06.jpg, The astrological clock above the entrance, showing the

Signs of the Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...

File:Clock (8151686131).jpg, Detail of astrological clock, with the face of

References

Bracken House
National Heritage List for England, Historic England
London Remembers

e-architect.co.uk

Original building
City of London {{coord, 51, 30, 45, N, 0, 05, 47, W, display=title Financial Times Office buildings in London Grade II* listed buildings in the City of London Office buildings completed in 1958 Buildings by Hopkins Architects Modern architecture in the United Kingdom Neoclassical architecture in London Astronomical clocks in the United Kingdom