55 Broadway

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55 Broadway

55 Broadway is a striking Art Deco building in London . It is located in the City of Westminster south of St. James's Park , above the underground station of the same name . The building, designed by the architect Charles Holden , is a listed building ( Grade I ). It has been the administrative headquarters of London Underground since its completion in 1929 .

description

The building is a steel frame structure encased in concrete and clad in Portland limestone . The two lowest floors extend over the entire irregularly shaped property. Above it rise five storeys arranged in a cross shape, the wings of which extend to the perimeter. These wings are arranged around a 53 meter high central tower.

The ornamental gable above the seventh floor is decorated with a relief band and sculptures known as The Four Winds (the four cardinal points). Each direction is represented twice, so that there are a total of eight such sculptures. There are also two sculptures that symbolize day and night.

North Wind by Eric Gill

The sculptures come from the following artists:

history

Sculptures Day and Night by Jacob Epstein caused a scandal

Holden had designed various underground stations for the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), the most important predecessor of London Underground, since 1923 . In 1926 he received the order from UERL managing director Frank Pick to design a new representative headquarters above St. James's Park station as a replacement for the now too small Electric Railway House at the same location. When the building opened in 1929, it was the tallest steel-framed office building in London. Two years later, Holden received the London Architecture Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects .

The modernity and figurative nudity of the sculptures Day and Night created by Jacob Epstein caused a scandal after the unveiling . Various newspapers launched campaigns to make the offensive sculptures disappear. They are "obscene", "bestial" and resemble "nightmares". Lord Colwyn , one of the directors, was even willing to pay the demolition costs. Pick took full responsibility and offered to resign. Epstein finally agreed to shorten the protruding penis of the Day sculpture by just under four centimeters, whereupon the minds calmed down.

Web links

Commons : 55 Broadway  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Heart of London. (No longer available online.) Royal Institute of British Architects, archived from the original on May 4, 2011 ; accessed on February 5, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Holdenesque. (No longer available online.) Royal Institute of British Architects, archived from the original on May 4, 2011 ; accessed on February 5, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Stephen Halliday: Underground to everywhere . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 2001, ISBN 0-7509-2585-X , pp. 139-141 .
  4. ↑ Eitan Karol: Charles Holden: Architect . Shaun Tyas, Stamford 2007, ISBN 978-1-900289-81-8 , pp. 319 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 58 ″  N , 0 ° 8 ′ 1.3 ″  W.