C20 Society has recommended Grade II* listing for Sir Terry Farrell’s Embankment Place (1987-90) in a consultation with Historic England, following a COI (Certificate of Immunity from listing) application from the building owner. Conceived as a ‘Palace on the River’, Embankment Place was Farrell’s breakthrough project and the most important of his three large-scale London commissions of the late 1980s and early 90s – Alban Gate in the City of London and the SIS Building at Vauxhall Cross being the other two.

The original vaulted roof of the Victorian train shed at Charing Cross collapsed in 1905 and was replaced by a nondescript flat roof. The Terry Farrell Partnership proposed new building alongside a package of public realm improvements. Embankment Place made use of the station’s air rights, suspending nine storeys of offices above the railway tracks. The resulting bowstring arch is primarily stone-clad in pale grey Sardinian granite, with four main core towers topped with weathered copper fins.

As one of Farrell’s “Grand Projects,” it is his most contextual and successful work. The project revitalized the public realm, transforming a drab site into a monumental “Palace on the River.” It won the 1991 RIBA National Award, the 1991 RTPI Award for Planning Achievement, the 1991 Civic Trust Awards and the 1994 BCO Award among others.

 

Source: Twentieth Century Society (C20). Read more: https://c20society.org.uk/news/c20-recommends-ii-listing-for-farrells-embankment-place

Images © 1. Nigel Young; 2. Andrew Holt; 3. Dennis Gilbert; 4. Dennis Gilbert