Energis
House (Former), Reading
Architect
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Date
Built
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1974
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Location
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Forbury
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Description
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This iconic
brutalist building was for many years an
indication that you were about to arrive at
Reading station. It was built in the
early 1970s as the home of the Metal Box
Company and it was originally named Queen's
House. Apparently, the company had
requested of the architect that the building
be anything but a box shape and what they got
was a concrete hexagonal doughnut with its own
underground car park and a swimming pool that
doubled as a reservoir for the sprinkler
system.
After Metal Box left the building, it became
the home of Energis, a "technology-driven
communications company", that over time became
Cable and Wireless and eventually part of
Vodaphone. The name Energis House became
the building's name. Cable and Wireless
moved out in 2012 and the building was sold by
its owners, Scottish Widows Investment
Partnership, for £22.6million to
developer Bell Hammer and its partner M&G
Real Estate.
In late 2014 work began on demolishing Energis
House in preparation for the construction of
two new office buildings called Two and Three
Reading, to accompany their existing
neighbouur the appropriately named One
Reading. Below are a number of images
showing the demolition process and the early
stages of construction on the new buildings.
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