An Icon of the London Skyline

On its creation in 1902, the UERL took control of the Metropolitan District Railway Company, whose offices had been above St James's Park Station

By the late 1920s, the UERL Board wanted to house all of its ‘head office’ staff in 1 new purpose-built office block on the site

Many buildings along Broadway, Ermin Hill, York Street and Petty France needed to be purchased

This plan from a 1917 deed shows the extent of property purchased and the location of the railway line running below the proposed site

At 14 floors, 55 Broadway would be the tallest office building in London

But the design would need to honour the restrictions placed on it by this agreement from 1927, which specifies the potential footprint and height of any building to be constructed opposite Queen Anne's Mansions

Contemporary artists would be invited to sculpt decorative features directly onto the stone façade

Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1929

700 reinforced concrete piles were sunk to an average depth of 12.2 metres (40 feet) below basement level to support the building

19 load-bearing steel girders span the railway, and special insulation was used to reduce vibration from the trains 

This did nothing to prevent noise complaints from neighbours during construction

The scale, design and vision of the building was well received

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awarded 55 Broadway its 1929 London Architectural Medal

... to the hostility with which some of the carvings, commissioned from the most famous artists of the day including Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore, were greeted

"To sum up... I find Epstein a greater poet than I do a sculptor and a cleverer man than most."

In 1970 the façade, the main staircase, the lift lobby areas on each floor and the panelled wing including the office of Lord Ashfield (the first Chairman of London Transport), were all listed Grade II, and in January 2011 the building achieved Grade I listing