West End Buildings, Monuments and Landmarks

Home

London Buildings

West End

The Shard - What's in it for me?

1
2
3
4
5

(22 votes, average 4.95 out of 5)

Inspired by London's church spires and the sails of former ships which moored on the Thames (no, me neither), The Shard is London's newest and tallest building. Perhaps not the most welcome parallel to draw: but it's triangular form and wide base tapering to a disappearing point, remind me of a house of cards. That's been shrouded in glass. The corners of The Shard are open and the shards don't touch, which helps with air circulation inside the building.

The tower will reach 1,016 feet (310 metres) when completed and has 44 lifts from the ground floor to hurtle you skywards - at least be thankful they're not running up the outside. One of the conditions for its approval was an agreement to sink considerable development capital into the immediate area, with a new concourse and piazza and extended and updated transport links (you'll be able to access the Tube directly, from inside The Shard). (For information about London's other tallest buildings - follow the link)

Devised by property magnate Irvine Sellar (who made his mark selling flared trousers to the flower-power generation, in '60s Carnaby Street) and designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (The Pompidou Centre was an early collaboration); it was squarely opposed by English Heritage for its intrusion on World Heritage Sites.

That's all well and good - but what's going to be in the Shard? And more importantly: what's in it for me?

Southwark Cathedral

1
2
3
4
5

(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)

Southwark Cathedral near London Bridge station could hardly be accused of hiding, being there for all to see it in the shadow of Europe's tallest building - The Shard. However, relatively few venture inside and are missing out on a remarkable interior and rich history. A church was first thought to have been built on the site in 606 but evidence is lacking, though [pagan] places of worship existed here in Roman times, around 300 AD.

Southwark is at the oldest crossing point on the Thames, opposite the entrance to the City of London on the northern bank. Successive churches were built and each succumbed to fire damage, before the present building was erected between 1220 and 1420, becoming the first Gothic church in London. Thomas Becket preached from the pulpit here, a few days before returning to Canterbury and his murder at the hands of Henry II's knights in 1170. Over the next five centuries the church was subjected to frequent upheaval, reflected in the significant changes to England's state religion. Henry VIII closed the priory during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and converted the main building to a parish church - St. Saviour's. During Mary I's reign, the protestant 'Marian Martyrs' were condemned to death in the Retrochoir, by Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester. It was a hazardous time to be vocal about your church and beliefs, as England swung back and forth from Catholic to Protestant during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I (Lady Jane Grey with 9 days on the throne, didn't really have time to express a preference - though was protestant nonetheless).

Spencer House

Spencer House is a mansion in St. James's, London. The house was commissioned by John, 1st Earl Spencer in 1756, the Earl requiring a large London house to cement his position and status. The architect he chose was John Vardy who had studied under William Kent. Vardy is responsible for the facades of the mansion that we see today.
In 1758 James 'Athenian' Stuart who had studied the arcadian values of Greek architecture replaced Vardy as the architect of the project; as a direct result of this Spencer House was to have authentic Greek details in the internal decoration, and thus it became one of the first examples in London of the neoclassical style, which was to sweep the country.

Somerset House

Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It was extended by classical Victorian wings to north and south. A building of the same name was first built on the site more than two centuries earlier.

Sir William Chambers, Surveyor-General of Works and appointed to design and build the new Somerset House, spent the last two decades of his life, beginning in 1775, in several phases of building at the present Somerset House. Thomas Telford, then a stone mason, but later an eminent civil engineer, was among those who worked on its construction. One of Chambers's most famous pupils, Thomas Hardwick Jr, helped build parts of the building during his period of training and later wrote a short biography about Chambers.

By 1780 the North Wing, fronting the Strand, was complete. Its design was based on Inigo Jones's drawings for the riverfront of the former building. We do not know for certain at what pace the rest of the construction progressed, but it is clear that the outbreak of war with France caused delays through lack of money. Chambers died in 1796; most of the building was completed after Chambers' death by James Wyatt. However we know that building work was still going on in 1801; and there are indications that as late as 1819 some decorative work still needed to be completed. This original building (which did not yet include the "New Wing" and King's College London, situated behind the West and East Wings of the quadrangle respectively) probably cost about £500,000.

Winfield House

1
2
3
4
5

(1 vote, average 4.00 out of 5)

Winfield House: the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Court of St. James's, occupies twelve and a half acres on the northwest side of Regent's Park.

The house stands behind fifteen-foot high iron gates on land that was once part of a "great forest, with wooded glades and lairs of wild beasts, deer both red and fallow, wild bulls and boars". Half a century before the Norman Conquest the land belonged to the Abbey of Barking.

The land remained rural countryside until the 19th century when John Nash was Architect to the Woods and Forests Department, and friend of the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV. With the draftsman James Morgan, Nash began an elaborate plan for the development of the whole area. It consisted of fifty-six villas and a zoo - which is still there - but by the time George IV became King, costs had sky-rocketed and only eight villas were built.

Winfield House: is the official residence of the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In 1936 the house was partly destroyed by fire and it was bought by Barbara Hutton. The world-famous heiress was then twenty-four years old and married to Count Haugwitz-Reventlow. Concerned about threats to kidnap their son Lance, they decided to give up their house near Marble Arch in London and look for something bigger and more secure. Three years earlier she had inherited some $40 million from her grandfather, Frank Winfield Woolworth, founder of the Woolworth store chain.