Centre Point Tower, central London

[down not out]

Thanks for the information Lang Rabbie

 

[down not out]

I think the proposed replacement is a mangled-up deformation of the lovely sweeping delicate angled stairway.

 

[5t3IIa]

Delicately angel stairway in dirty concrete that actiuvely hates pedestrians?

 

[down not out]

In what way does the stairway hate pedestrians? - it seems really practical. I think the concrete is brilliant - and it seems amazing the way they cast those parts -it was built when the main building was and is part of the style.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Ugh, it's a bit skanky down by those stairs.

 

[down not out]

They don't seem to look after it very well

 

[5t3IIa]

In what way does the stairway hate pedestrians? - it seems really practical. I think the concrete is brilliant - and it seems amazing the way they cast those parts -it was built when the main building was and is part of the style.

The starirwat and fountain area do not allow for a decent pavement. I imagine if pedestrians could walk past it it'd be left alone. As it is, they can't.

 

[down not out]

The stairway doesn't interfere with the pavement. I agree the original side where the fountains were only left a too narrow piece for pedestrians.

 

[JWH]

Mmm, not one of my favourite buildings, at street level anyway. I wouldn't be sad to see it go completely.

What is this 'gyratory'?

Does that refer to the sort-of-figure-8 traffic flow around the base of the building?

 

[T & P]

Listed or not, that building is a fucking eyesore.

 

[lenny101]

Centre Point creates a wind tunnel which turns a breeze into a gale. I hate cycling past it.

 

[editor]

I am crying but not one tear at the belated news that Harry Hyams, the developer has popped his clogs. That greedy cunt tried to close down this site because of a piece I wrote about the tower. Fuck you, Harry!

The architect George Marsh, working with his colleague Richard Seifert, designed a 385ft, 35-floor tower of concrete and glass (which is now grade II listed), built at a cost of £5.5m over three years from 1963 to 1966. Hyams insisted that the building, one of London’s first skyscrapers, was to be let only to “a single tenant of undoubted covenant”. Partly as a result, it remained empty for the next 16 years, and Hyams was accused of purposely keeping the building empty, as the growth in its capital value was higher than the lost rent. He denied this accusation at every turn, using the lawyer Arnold (later Lord) Goodman to fire off letters and threats of legal action at anyone who suggested the vacancy was deliberate. Protestations of innocence continued until his death.

In 1973, Hyams took out an advertisement in the press claiming Centre Point was “the best known office building in the world”. Some in New York may have disputed that claim, but it was certainly the most controversial. Eventually, Hyams relented and leased the building floor by floor. It was never fully occupied, and the road scheme that precipitated its construction, with its dismal underground pedestrian ways, was for many years a disgrace to the capital. After housing the Confederation of British Industry from 1980 to 2014, in 2015 Centre Point was converted from office space into luxury flats.

Harry Hyams obituary

 

[toblerone3]

There's a really good account of the story behind CentrePoint and Space House in Concretopia by John Grindrod.

 

[editor]

I've posted about the soon-to-be-luxury-flats Centre Point on this page

Stickers, photo galleries, concrete, Centre Point and books: London street views

 

[editor]

You can buy the tarted up letters that were on the top of the tower for £3k upwards


The Centre Point Letters | The Auction Collective