One Kemble Street and Civil Aviation Authority House (CAA House), originally known jointly as Space House, is an architecturally notable building off Kingsway in the London Borough of Camden. It is a grade II listed building with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

. Like nearby Centre Point, it was built for the developer

Harry Hyams Harry John Hyams (2 January 1928 – 19 December 2015) was a British millionaire who initially made his money as a speculative property developer. He was best known as the developer of the Centre Point office building in London. Early life Hyam ...

as part of the 1960s commercial property boom and kept empty for several years after completion.

Design and construction

The building was designed by George Marsh, a partner in

Richard Seifert Richard Seifert (born Reubin Seifert; 25 November 1910 – 26 October 2001) was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing the Centre Point tower and Tower 42 (previously the NatWest Tower), once the tallest building in the City of ...

's architectural firm, for Oldham Estates, the vehicle for the developer

, and built between 1964 and 1968 by Robert McAlpine and Sons. Marsh had also designed the nearby

Centre Point Centre Point is a building in Central London, comprising a 34-storey tower; a 9-storey block to the east including shops, offices, retail units and maisonettes; and a linking block between the two at first-floor level. It occupies 101–103 ...

, also for Hyams. The

consulting engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

were C.J. Pell & Partners.1 Kemble Street.
skyscrapernews.com 11 February 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2017. Space House replaced the Edwardian building Magnet House, built by

Hugo Hirst Hugo Hirst, 1st Baron Hirst (26 November 1863 – 22 January 1943), known as Sir Hugo Hirst, Bt, between 1925 and 1934, was a German-born British industrialist. Born near Munich, Hugo Hirsch became a naturalized British subject in 1883 and chang ...

for his General Electric Company in 1921, and comprises a rectangular eight-storey office building at 45–59 Kingsway and a cylindrical tower now known as One Kemble Street on a triangular plot to the west bounded by Kemble Street, Wild Street and Keeley Street. The cylindrical shape was chosen in order not to block the light of the buildings in those streets. The buildings are joined by a two-level enclosed walkway. Underneath the building is a car park that originally had a mini filling station. The 16-storey tower was built using a

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

precast Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples include precast bea ...

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

blocks of white concrete joined by dowels and dry grout."Space House Kingsway London"
, '' Concrete Quarterly'', 74 (July–September 1967), pp. 36–38. They were laid out in a grid pattern to allow fast and low-cost construction without the need to use a

scaffold Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely used ...

. Each block is of diameter, the same height as each storey, with a precast concrete floor panel forming the base of each storey and radiating out from a central core. The base of the tower incorporates Y-shaped columns of capstone concrete as also used at Centre Point. The concrete units in the building were made by Portcrete Limited. The eight-storey block on Kingsway, now known as CAA House, was also built using precast concrete blocks, with the addition of a row of central supporting columns. It was laid out with a large central office space and services and circulation at each end of the building.

Later history

The building was first let to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 1975. It had large-scale refurbishments in 1996 and 2003. It was listed grade II with Historic England in January 2015. The Kingsway block is now known as CAA House while the tower has been renamed One Kemble Street and has tenants such as the main office of the

Government Legal Department The Government Legal Department (previously called the Treasury Solicitor's Department) is the largest in-house legal organisation in the United Kingdom's Government Legal Service. The department is headed by the Treasury Solicitor. This office g ...

and the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

. The CAA's lease ended in December 2019 and these agencies have since vacated the building.

Redevelopment

The Civil Aviation Authority left the building and as of 2022 it is being redeveloped by Seaforth Land. The redevelopment will remove the plant floor at the top of the tower and replace with a "facsimile" floor and another set back.

Gallery

File:1 Kemble Street 04.jpg, Covered walkway between buildings File:1 Kemble Street 13.jpg, Entrance to tower with 'Y' shaped supporting blocks File:1 Kemble Street 11.jpg, Underground car park entrance File:1 Kemble Street 01.jpg, Keeley Street elevation of Kingsway block

References

External links

{{coord, 51.5148, -0.1195, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Richard Seifert buildings Buildings and structures completed in 1968 1968 in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Grade II listed office buildings 20th-century architecture in the United Kingdom