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(21 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5)
Loading ...Stephen Furnell of Furnell Associates has been hit hard by London’s Shard, lamenting loss of the belle of London Bridge Stations three sisters: “Southwark Towers, the HQ of Price Waterhouse, London, was a 25 storey office tower built as part of a group around London Bridge Station.
A view from a different angle
“Guy’s Hospital Tower and Seifert’’s London Bridge House were the others. It is ironic that of the three, the two most unlovely buildings, by anybody’s standards, are still standing.
“Designed in 1969-70 this was a reinforced concrete structure and an early example of energy-saving design. Clad with glass and brick on a Y-shaped plan, with sun-shading balconies and cantilevered glass panels to reduce cooling loads.
“The reflective glass of the outriggers that clad the building’s main facades produced spectacular patterns in the sunlight and shaded the building from solar gain, as well as giving window cleaning access.
“Stephen Furnell spent five and a half years as lead designer, along with Len Abbott the Partner -in -charge, and many other designers, and although he no longer works for the firm who built it, is heartbroken to see it go. The site is now the location for Renzo Piano’s Shard of Glass. Let’s hope his glass looks as good.”
Having worked for a couple of years around there, and used London Bridge station every day, I certainly agree that it was the best of the modern buildings in the area. In winter it acted as a beacon over the station. Unfortunately, its quality was much more difficult to perceive after the meretricious corporate 1990s makeover of the lobby for PwC.
Were Bennett’s also responsible for the space frame over the adjacent station concourse? I remember it originally having a rather funky yellow-lime green colour scheme which was then obliterated when Network SouthEast painted everything in their house red?
Declaration of interest: I was subsequently on a committee with Stephen Furnell for a couple of years, and only discovered his involvement when someone mentioned the Shard.
Give me a break! I work at London bridge, and that building was fugly! It was also incidentally forever messing up my do in the morning as the wind it created at street level was phenomenal. I’m not sad to see it go + Guy’s Hospital tower is far more interesting, the way it looms menancingly over London Bridge.. quite dramatic.