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 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 ...

building with Historic England. 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 Hyams ...

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'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 change ...

for his

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

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 Kemble may refer to: Places * Kemble, Gloucestershire, a village in England ** Kemble railway station ** Cotswold Airport (formerly Kemble Airfield and RAF Kemble) ** Kemble Air Show, former name of the Cotswold Air Show * Kemble, Ontario, Canad ...

, Wild Street and

Keeley Street Keeley may refer to: People Surname *Barbara Keeley, British Labour MP *Damian Keeley (born 1963), English professional football player *Earl Keeley (born 1936), Canadian football player *Edmund Keeley (1928–2022), American author, translator, a ...

. 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 of

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 beam ...

cruciform blocks of white concrete joined by dowels and dry grout."Space House Kingsway London"
, ''

Concrete Quarterly The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the United Kingdom trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar, and silica sand industries. Membership The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the t ...

'', 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. 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 CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that will test and verify the calculated orbital stability planned for the Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12- ...

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 A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

(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 and the Office of Rail and Road. 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