Demolishing Whitehall
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DEMOLISHING WHITEHALL Demolishing Whitehall Leslie Martin, Harold Wilson and the Architecture of White Heat Adam Sharr Newcastle University, UK Stephen Thornton Cardiff University, UK First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2013 Adam Sharr and Stephen Thornton Adam Sharr and Stephen Thornton have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identied as the authors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafterinvented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Sharr, Adam. Demolishing Whitehall: Leslie Martin, Harold Wilson and the Architecture of White Heat / By Adam Sharr and Stephen Thornton. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4094-2387-4 (hardback) 1. Martin, Leslie, 1908-2000—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Public buildings— England—London. 3. Architecture and state—Great Britain—History—20th century. 4. Technology—Social aspects—Great Britain—History—20th century. 5. Whitehall (London, England)—Buildings, structures, etc. 6. London (England)—Buildings, structures, etc. I. Thornton, Stephen, 1970– II. Title. NA997.M35S53 2013 725’.10942132—dc23 2013011980 ISBN 9781409423874 (hbk) Contents List of Illustrations vii Illustration Credits xv List of Protagonists xvii Acknowledgements xxi 1 Introduction 1 2 A Hope of Better Times and More Spacious Days 35 3 Components of a Plan 63 4 Leslie Martin and the Science of Architectural Form 147 5 Lost in a Vortex 215 6 Conclusion 249 Bibliography 275 Index 291 List of Illustrations 1.1 The model submitted with the Whitehall plan showing the proposed megastructure, with Parliament Square in the centre 2 1.2 The model with Trafalgar Square bottom right, the Palace of Westminster top left and the proposed megastructure running across the model, above the centre 3 1.3 The Foreign Oce seen from Whitehall in 2011 4 1.4 The Post Oce Tower on London’s skyline, designed by Eric Bedford of the Ministry of Public Building and Works 5 1.5 Harold Wilson, the herald of White Heat, in 1965 with a telephone at his right hand 8 1.6 The cities of the future: a 1963 proposal for the comprehensive redevelopment of Piccadilly Circus in London designed by William Holford, featuring a ‘three level pedestrian system’. The statue of Eros is relocated to the centre of the Circus. The neo-classical façade far left – the end of Regent Street – is one of the few points of orientation. 11 1.7 Centre Point, designed by Richard Seifert 16 1.8 Trellick Tower in West London, designed by Ernö Goldnger 19 1.9 The freshness of new modern architecture. Hide Tower ats, Hide Place London SW1, designed for Westminster City Council and completed in 1961 to designs by Stillman and Eastwick-Field 20 1.10 Cushion printed with an image of Trellick Tower 24 2.1 Student residences at the University of East Anglia, designed by Denys Lasdun 54 2.2 Engineering Building at the University of Leicester, designed by James Stirling and James Gowan 55 3.1 The Admiralty 64 3.2 The Horse Guards 65 3.3 Banqueting House 66 3.4 Gwydyr House, the Wales Oce 66 3.5 Richmond Terrace 67 viii DEMOLISHING WHITEHALL 3.6 Dover House, the Scotland Oce 67 3.7 The gated entrance to Downing Street 68 3.8 The Foreign Oce 68 3.9 The Cenotaph 69 3.10 Richmond House 69 3.11 New Scotland Yard, or ‘Norman Shaw North’ 70 3.12 The Treasury, known in the Whitehall report as the Great George Street Building 71 3.13 The tour groups and trac which dominate Parliament Square and Whitehall 71 3.14 Portcullis House 72 3.15 The Palace of Westminster 72 3.16 St. Margaret’s Church in front of Westminster Abbey, as seen from Parliament Square 73 3.17 The Supreme Court, formerly known as Middlesex Guildhall 73 3.18 Methodist Central Hall 74 3.19 The footprint of Inigo Jones and John Webb’s seventeenth-century plan to rebuild Whitehall, overlaid on the 1965 street pattern, as drawn in the report 75 3.20 The footprint of Christopher Wren’s seventeenth-century plan to rebuild Whitehall, overlaid on the 1965 street pattern, as drawn in the report 75 3.21 Charles Barry’s nineteenth-century plan to rebuild Whitehall. Note the proposed Westminster Abbey close, removing St. Margaret’s Church. Also the single mass of government oces, redeveloped riverfront and bridge over the Thames. Martin admired this plan, which was more ambitious than his own. 75 3.22 Lionel March’s working notes. Floor space studies for courtyard plans 78 3.23 Lionel March’s working notes. Studies of plot ratio, eciency factors and clerical area 79 3.24 Lionel March’s working notes. Translating abstract studies into plan form 80 3.25 Abercrombie’s 1943 County Plan for London envisaged this road network to create a pedestrianised precinct around Parliament Square. The Whitehall report notes that ‘Rebuilding has eliminated the line of the [curving] road which might have created the precinct’. 81 3.26 Gordon Cullen’s perspective envisaging a pedestrianised Parliament Square, from ‘Westminster Regained’ in the Architectural Review of 1947 82 3.27 Section through the Palace of Westminster showing the proposed road tunnel in the River Thames 82 3.28 1800 car parking spaces provided beneath the new development, mostly under private courtyards which would give natural light and ventilation, connected to the new road inserted in the river 83 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix 3.29 Proposed developments in and around the Whitehall area in 1964/65 84 3.30 ‘Natural routes from St. James’ Park to the river’ to be enhanced as pedestrian ways in the city 86 3.31 Key buildings aected by the proposal 88 3.32 ‘Clerical accommodation’ around Whitehall in 1964/65, labelled as follows: A is the Foreign Oce, B is the Great George Street Building, C is the so-called Bridge Street site including Scotland Yard; D is the Old Admiralty Buildings, and E is the Old War Oce and various ministries. 90 3.33 Plan showing oor layouts of the Foreign Oce and Great George Street buildings 92 3.34 Exploring building form on the site. ‘The same oor space planned around larger courts: buildings 12 storeys high’ 94 3.35 Further explorations. ‘The same oor space planned with a combination of six tall blocks 18 storeys high and low 4-storey frontages’ 94 3.36 Graph relating site area, oor area, plot ratio and building population. This graph would allow the most optimum conguration for new government buildings in Whitehall to be established. 96 3.37 Graph becomes layout. A gallery, highlighted in tone, links St. James’ Park with the River Thames and crosses Whitehall at high level. The thick line indicates the public street running alongside. 97 3.38 Section through Whitehall showing the approximate existing building lines (grey) and the new terraced blocks which step back to create more space at street level 97 3.39 Section showing the ‘principal gallery’ along which the oces are laid out. Ocials and public share the space, but at dierent levels. This is one of the few drawings in the report that shows the spatial qualities the designers imagined. 98 3.40 Isometric drawing of a ‘typical oce wing’ showing oces ‘clustered about vertical circulation points and internal spaces containing conference rooms, stores, and other common facilities’, the latter highlighted in tone. ‘At the top can be seen the roof terrace, in the centre a typical oce oor [here partitioned as cellular oces], and at the bottom the courts and main gallery circulation area.’ 99 3.41 Plan showing how the section reduces overshadowing 100 3.42 Galeria Vittoria Emmanuele in Milan 101 3.43 Table showing oor areas, in square feet, for government oces in Whitehall; as existing (left) and as proposed (right) 102 3.44 ‘The form of the service layout, of service points, sub-stations, loading bays and postal collecting and delivery points reects the form of the government oce layout above’. They connect with possible future developments in the government estate beyond the Whitehall plan, shown on the right of this drawing. 103 x DEMOLISHING WHITEHALL 3.45 Model showing the condition of Whitehall in 1965. Westminster Bridge is bottom centre, the Palace of Westminster lower left, St. James’ Park top right. The Great George Street and Foreign Oce buildings are the two biggest volumes to the right of centre. 106 3.46 First phase. New parliamentary building, highlighted, with a new underground station and shopping concourse beneath. This phase would provide ‘decanting capacity’ to allow subsequent phases to proceed. 107 3.47 Second phase. The megastructure begins to emerge. Expanded development of the Bridge Street site to provide 396,000 sq ft of oces. Scotland Yard (the right hand building in black) is readdressed. 108 3.48 Third phase. Demolition and replacement of the Foreign Oce. 462,000 sq ft of oce space is provided with an extension of the underground car parking and servicing facilities.