Canal
House / "The Battleship Building" - Paddington Basin,
London, UK
Architect
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Bicknell and Hamilton
1968 - 1969
Refurbished inside by Allford Hall Monaghan
Morris Associates 2000
Refitted by Giles Bruce of a_zero
Environmental Architects 2011
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Location
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179 Harrow
Road, Paddington Basin
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Description
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It was built as a British Rail
Maintenance Depot in 1969 and known as Canal
House. A history of the building
compiled by one of its present occupants (BDSP
Partnership) says that, "Commissioned by British Rail it
was something of a minor sensation at the
time of its completion and widely touted as
the first London building to come to terms
with the symbolisation of a modern transport
building, set as it is in the crutch of a
minor motorway and the main railway station
system going into Paddington Station.
The administration block towered above the
roadway, small in area but immensley
powerful in profile."
"Inside the entrance hall and
staircase were inspired by the German
Modernist Eric Mendelsohn."
During the 1990s the building fell into
disrepair. In 1994 it was awarded Grade
II Listed status.
In 2000 the architectural practice of Allford
Hall Monaghan Morris refurbished the building. The £10million
refurbishment was done prior to Monsoon moving
in. The architects say of that process,
"179 Harrow Road has been
completely refurbished, brought back to life
and given new purpose as the bright,
contemporary and unusual new working space
for the 200-plus Monsoon Accessorize head
office staff. The building provides
3,000m² of primarily open plan office
space with the use of chilled beams for air
conditioning/heating and lighting fixed to
high level exposed concrete
soffits. A staff restaurant
resides on the 4th floor almost within
touching distance of the Westway."
The nickname of Battleship Building comes from
its shape which, it has been said, looks like
it has, "reared like a
battleship over the turbulence of the
motorway."
Today the building's occupants are the
creative agency Rapier and the BDSP
Partnership, an engineering consultancy whose
portfollio of projects includes the Olympic
Velodrome, 30 St. Mary Axe and the National
Assembly of Wales.
When BDSP moved into the building in 2011 they
commissioned Giles Bruce of a_zero
Environmental Architects to perform a refit of
their part of the building. This
involved the creation of new meeting rooms,
conference rooms, showers and kitchen/dining
facilities.
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