London Bridge is falling down. And up.
The current London Bridge train station was opened in 1978, and its brown tinniness speaks of the Winter of Discontent and a bargain version of the high tech, postmodern 70s style that gave us buildings such as the Pompidou Centre or the Haywood Gallery, whose spiky pyramids it echoes as skylights. These pictures from 2008.
New London Bridge House was designed by Richard Seifert, architect of Centre Point. The initial two pictures were taken in 2008 and the remainder in February 2010. It's now covered in scaffolding and tarpaulin and is being demolished to be replaced with the 'baby Shard'.
As The Shard goes up, the 70s facade of the station is slowly being cut up and discarded.
New London Bridge House was designed by Richard Seifert, architect of Centre Point. The initial two pictures were taken in 2008 and the remainder in February 2010. It's now covered in scaffolding and tarpaulin and is being demolished to be replaced with the 'baby Shard'.
The only thing I miss about London is the excitement of new building - every time I visit now it's so different I find it bewildering - living in Aldgate and watching Canary Wharf slowly reaching upwards was really exciting for me - where I live now there is a public consultation process if someone paints their shed door.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the brown panels on the side of LB station were rusty metal, cor-ten, or something similar, which was pretty chic in the '70's. I went and looked at some close up the other day where they had been damaged by the building work and turns out that they're.....fibre glass. Brown fibre glass! An insanely horrible material to make a station out of. I was quite impressed.
ReplyDeleteFibre glass?! That is, as you say, insane. Because there's miles of it there. I had no idea. Couldn't have been more '70s if it had been artex and cork matting.
ReplyDeleteI really like New London Bridge House (unlike most people) and was trying to find who designed it - your site is the only one who identified the architect (including wikipedia). Thanks!
ReplyDeleteCheers Fred! Extraordinary how little useful information is out there. It's just a big hole in the ground now. I was amazed how quickly they demolished it.
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ReplyDeleteI moved into New London Bridge House on day one, and worked in Williams and Glyn's Bank IT Department on the 6th Floor. It was one of the better buildings to look at and work in in its day. I've lived outside of London for a few years and only twigged last month that it was part of the redevelopment to make way for The Shard. It's a shame that any building should have such a short life regardless of its virtues or the virtues of its replacement.
ReplyDeleteThere is a great British Transport Films film of the 1970s rebuild of London Bridge - Operation London Bridge - I think it is on one of the BFI BTF DVD releases
ReplyDeleteSee
http://www.britishtransportfilms.co.uk/
and check 'films'
DL