Baynard House is a brutalist office block in Queen Victoria Street in Blackfriars 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 f ...

, occupied by

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...

. It was built on the site of

Baynard's Castle Baynard's Castle refers to buildings on two neighbouring sites in the City of London, between where Blackfriars station and St Paul's Cathedral now stand. The first was a Norman fortification constructed by Ralph Baynard ( 1086), 1st feudal ...

. Most of the land under it is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. From 1982 to 1997 it housed the

BT Museum The BT Museum was a telecommunications museum run by BT, that held artefacts and exhibits on the history of telecommunications in the United Kingdom. It was based in Baynard House in the Blackfriars district of London. It was originally opene ...

Features and uses

The building was designed by

William Holford William Graham Holford, Baron Holford, (22 March 1907 – 17 October 1975) was a British architect and town planner. Biography Holford was educated at Diocesan College, Cape Town and returned to Johannesburg. From 1925–30 he studied archite ...

incorporating a separation of pedestrians from streets, with a first-floor adjoining walkway along Queen Victoria Street that connects to Blackfriars station. The entrance foyer to Baynard House remains off this first floor level. A plaque in the building foyer reads: Legislation protecting the sightline of St Paul's Cathedral from bridges across the Thames and from places such as

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

and

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park ...

restricted the overall height of the building to three full levels above ground. Baynard House was for a few years a telephone exchange, and housed the first operational System X telephone exchange, which went live in 1980. From 1982 to 1997 it housed the

. It is the site of an unusual cast aluminium public sculpture by

Richard Kindersley Richard Kindersley is a British typeface designer, stone letter carver and sculptor. Career Kindersley studied lettering and sculpture at Cambridge School of Art and in the workshop of his father David Kindersley David Guy Barnabas Kind ...

, entitled ''The Seven Ages of Man''. The sculpture, consisting of a column made up of sculptural heads resembling a

totem pole Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually ...

, was commissioned by

Post Office Telecommunications Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a separate department of the UK Post Office, in October 1969. The Post Office Act 1969 was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run a range of services, ...

and unveiled in April 1980. it had the largest solar panel area in the City of London and the second largest of a corporate building in the UK. The

Faraday Building The Faraday Building is in the south-west of the City of London. It was originally built as a sorting office for the General Post Office. In 1902 it was converted to a telephone exchange serving sections of London, and underwent several capaci ...

, one of the first major telephone exchanges in the UK, is across the road.

In film

Actor

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...

broke his ankle whilst performing a stunt, jumping from the roof in 2017, shooting scenes for the film '' Mission: Impossible – Fallout''.

References

External links

Baynard House – Brutalist Beauty

The Seven Ages of Man

Gallery

File:Baynard House 03.jpg, Waterfront side of Baynard House File:Blackfriars Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 1572060.jpg, Waterfront side of Baynard House and Blackfriars Railway bridge. Viewed from the Millennium Bridge. File:City of London School - DSC08162.JPG, Baynard House and Faraday Building (green roof) on the left, City of London School centre on the north bank of the River Thames, London. Shows height of construction restriction. {{coord, 51, 30.7151, N, 0, 6.0734, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in the City of London British Telecom buildings and structures Telephone exchange buildings Telecommunications buildings in the United Kingdom Scheduled monuments in London Brutalist architecture in London Blackfriars, London