| Shell Centre | |
|---|---|
 Shell Centre as seen from the London Eye in 2004 | |
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| General information | |
| Town or city | London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Construction started | 1957 |
| Completed | 1962 |
| Opened | 1962; 63 years ago (1962) |
| Owner | Shell plc |
| Design and construction | |
| Architecture firm | Sir Robert McAlpine |
TheShell Centre in London is the global headquarters ofoil majorShell plc. It is located on Belvedere Road in theLondon Borough of Lambeth. It is a prominent feature on theSouth Bank of theRiver Thames nearCounty Hall, and now forms the backdrop to theLondon Eye.
The original Shell Centre comprised the tower building and three now-demolished adjoining nine-storey wings (collectively formerly known as the "Upstream Building"). The original development also included the "Downstream Building", which had the same nine-storey slab block form but was separated from the Upstream Building by the railway viaduct betweenCharing Cross andWaterloo East.
Since 2004/05, a New Year 60-second countdown has been projected onto the Shell Centre at 11:59pm every New Year's Eve[1][2] as part of theMayor of London's fireworks celebrations centred on the stretch of the Thames in front of the London Eye.
The Downstream Building was disposed of by Shell in the 1990s. It has been heightened by one storey and is now a block of residential apartments known as the Whitehouse Apartments.[3]
The Shell Centre occupies part of the site cleared for the 1951Festival of Britain. The areas closer to the River Thames now includeJubilee Gardens and theSouth Bank Centre. Jubilee Gardens remained undeveloped prior to its laying out as an open space, largely because of a restrictivecovenant in favour of Shell that restricts any building on the part of the site directly between the Shell Tower and the River Thames.
The naming of the Shell Centre buildings perpetuated the split of the Festival site into distinct Upstream and Downstream areas, separated by the railway viaduct approach toHungerford Bridge.
During construction, parts of abandoned works for theWaterloo and Whitehall Railway were discovered. This was a prototype for a proposedpneumatic railway that would have run under the River Thames linkingWaterloo andCharing Cross. Digging was started in 1865, but was stopped in 1868, due to financial problems.
Visible in the Thames at low tide just in line with the tower as water turbulence at one point a few feet into the river bed is the outflow point of the Shell Centre's air conditioning system, which sucks in river water from just outsideCounty Hall and sends it via a pipe within a bolt iron tunnel (built exactly like a tube railway tunnel), to a point convergent with the outfall, beyond which both the intake pipe and the outflow pipes continue under the embankment andJubilee Gardens to the basement of the tower.
From here the water is sent through filters and heat exchangers to provide cooled air in the building. The pipes had to be specially supported on adjustable jacks, during excavation work for the extension of theJubilee line in 1995, because of settlement during the driving of an access tunnel out from Jubilee Gardens, to the main running lines in York Road via Chicheley Street.
The choice of Portland Stone cladding, and bronze framed individual upright windows were denounced byModern Movement critics, and the centre's buildings have generally been regarded as dull. However, the extremely traditional cladding has meant that the buildings have weathered better than most of their contemporaries with concrete or aggregate faced façades or curtain wall glazing.
The original interiors were luxuriously appointed, and as well as contributions from a British design team (many of whom had worked on the Festival of Britain), they included work byErnesto Nathan Rogers who had worked on theTorre Velasca inMilan. Facilities for staff were lavish by the standards of the time, and the basement of the building was designed with a full size swimming pool and a spacious gymnasium.
The basement also originally housed a rifle range, snooker room, a small supermarket for staff and a host of other facilities. Until 1998, there was also a fully equipped theatre (designed byCecil Beaton) which – unusually for a space dedicated to amateur productions – had fullfly tower facilities.[4]
The courtyard of the Upstream Building included two notable sculptures:
The public realm of the Upstream Building was steadily degraded over the years, with the generous space between the columns of the entrance from York Road enclosed to enlarge the foyers.Textured paving in contrasting colours was installed to assist partially sighted pedestrians navigate the complex steps and ramps of the site, but also served to deterrough sleepers andskateboarders.
The Shell Centre was constructed bySir Robert McAlpine between 1957 and 1962,[5] to a design by SirHoward Robertson, and the tower stands at 107 metres (351 ft) with 27 storeys (26 numbered and amezzanine level) and extends three storeys below ground. The tower was the first London office tower to exceed the height of theVictoria Tower of thePalace of Westminster.[6]
It replaced theMidland Grand Hotel as thetallest storied building in London, and theRoyal Liver Building as thetallest in the United Kingdom. On completion the building also held the record for the largest office building, by floor space, in Europe.[7]
In addition to being the headquarters for the group, it also acts as the main offices of the following Shell businesses; refining and marketing, along with a number of functional support activities such as finance and human resources. The Shell Centre is also the head office of Shell's United Kingdom business (Shell UK Ltd.), which was formerly located inShell Mex House.
In 2004, a planning application was approved to convert the lower floors of the Upstream Building courtyard and the former staff cafeteria into a shopping centre, and to construct a contrasting new glazed office building on thePodium Site to the south, which was then a paved open space above underground car parking.
In July 2011, Shell announced that a joint venture ofCanary Wharf Group andQatari Diar had bought a virtual freehold (a 999-year lease) on the Shell Centre for £300m, and would redevelop the site. The tower was to be left in place, but the rest of the site was replaced by a new scheme of offices, shops and restaurants.[8] The new development is calledSouthbank Place.[9]
The 9-storey ranges of the Upstream Building have now been replaced by a cluster of new predominantly glazed towers around the original Shell tower. They are considerably taller than the earlier buildings, but are all lower than the Shell Tower.
The staff amenities of the swimming pool and theatre in the basements have not been re-provided in the new development.
The Charoux 'Motorcyclist' sculpture was reinstated on the Chicheley Street side of the development in May 2019[10] but (as at April 2024) Franta Belsky's 'Shell Fountain' has not yet been re-erected.
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| Preceded by | Tallest Building in the United Kingdom 1961–1962 107 m | Succeeded by |
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51°30′13.8″N00°7′0.8″W / 51.503833°N 0.116889°W /51.503833; -0.116889
