A Spotter's Guide: Post-War Architecture

The City of London has some of the best post-war architecture this country has to offer. We explore how modern architects responded to radical recent changes in how we live, work and learn. This period saw an array of architectural movements and by the end of this exhibit you’ll be able to point out the High-tech, nod knowingly about Brutalism, and make it clear at dinner parties that you are referring to the International Style. 

Glossary:


Baroque - a lavish style of European architecture from 17th and 18th centuries, characterised by ornate detail.


Christopher Wren - one of the most highly acclaimed English architects, responsible for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece St Paul’s.


Classical - architecture which is clearly derived from Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity.


Modern - loose term to describe simplified, unornamented building styles of late 19th century and 20th century.


Pilaster - a rectangular column, especially one that projects from a wall.


Portland Roach stone - highly prized limestone from the Isle of Portland, in Dorset, which has a unique fossil structure – take a close look.

Glossary:

Cornice -any horizontal decorative molding that crowns (or appears near the top of) a building.

High-tech - influenced by engineering and new technology, this is a style that celebrates the display of a building’s construction and services.

Modern Classicism - a contemporary movement that continues the practice of classical and traditional architecture.

Piers - an upright support for a structure or superstructure.

Plinth - base or platform upon which a column, monument or structure rests.



The face in the middle? Winston Churchill – he was the boss of Brendan Bracken, founder of the modern version of the Financial Times, and they later became BFFs.

Ready to be amazed? You are standing in front of the first ever building to be fully clad in double-skinned glass-fibre reinforced cement (GRC) panels! (Stick with us, this is the only time we’ll get this technical).

At first, the architects wanted to clad the building in concrete but realised it would be too heavy. Then they considered bronze and aluminium which were ruled out for being too expensive, glass-fibre was too much of a fire risk, and so eventually they turned to the non-combustible equivalent GRC.

Although built in the 1970s, 80 Cannon Street is looking good for its age and has clearly been an influence on its newer, younger neighbours. The structure was built on four giant legs as the original design needed to make room for an underground station for the proposed Jubilee line. But then the underground railway was re-routed somewhere else, which was a bit awkward, so they put in a Boots instead.

Like the Pompidou Centre in Paris which was built around the same time, the lattice exoskeleton of stainless steel rods takes the weight of the floors, leaving the inner space uncluttered by columns. Rather interestingly, in case there should be a fire, the steel rods are filled with water.

The form of the building is based loosely on Natwest’s hexagonal logo and when it was completed in 1980 it was the UK’s tallest building. Innovative features of the build, never seen before in the UK, included double-decked lifts and sky lobbies (a double-decked lift increases capacity by sticking one lift on top of the other, and a sky lobby is a floor where you can get off an express lift and hop onto a local lift – one that stops at every floor.) Other new fancy features were an automated window washing system and computer controlled air conditioning.

So much to look at! Take in the banded Tuscan columns topped by caryatids (it’s what we call a female figure when she takes the place of a column or pillar, if it’s a fella then we call it a telamon), and the whole army of different figures just below the roof. An absolute visual feast to enjoy before you move round to Copthall Avenue, and then, BOOM.

Architect William Whitfield takes no prisoners by dramatically changing the architectural style to a Brutalist idiom, which quickly climbs to seven storeys.

The high quality of finish stops this from being just an ugly addition: the bush-hammered concrete creates a pleasing contrast with the Portland stone of the older build and the polished grey granite and glass of the new. And that stair projection on the corner – wow!

The design of the successive phases of the building marks a turning point in contextual architecture, as the original Baroque elements were kept during a time when, in other parts of the City, there was rampant development and many great buildings of this type were lost.

Behold a mighty fine example of post-war architecture that draws on 19th century designs but produces something fresh and brilliant. The façade’s dramatically dark granite frame and the reflective surfaces of its bronze-anodised windows makes a powerful contribution to this City streetscape (yes, streetscape is a proper word).

The building's use of exquisite materials, including absolutely massive bronze doors and bronze window screens, provides an air of opulence that says SHOW ME THE MONEY (which is fitting when you consider Brown Shipley's history of currency dealing).

As part of the post-war Guildhall reconstruction scheme, this L-shaped western wing was completed in the 1970s to house a new library and offices.

Not much has been written about this addition and, because of the historical setting and its refusal to blend, it’s the kind of building that can make people mad with architecture from this period. But despite this there is still a lot to like and enjoy: the shallow zigzag motif, the long slender concrete verticals, the bold but sometimes delicate use of bronze around the frames of glass.

Glossary:

Neo-Classical - In its purest form, it is a style principally derived from the architecture of classical antiquity. The main movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued throughout the 19th, 20th and up to the 21st century.

Postmodern - a movement which started in the late 70s and shows a preference for provocation, irony and distorted references to historical styles.

Rustication - rough-surfaced masonry blocks usually found around a building’s lower parts.

Piano nobile - the first floor of a large Palladian or Georgian house, containing the principal rooms.