55 Broadway

55 Broadway is a striking building in the Art Deco style in London. It is located in the City of Westminster south of St. James 's Park, on the same subway station. Designed by the architect Charles Holden building is a listed building (Grade I). It is since its completion in 1929, the administrative center of London Underground.

Description

The building is a steel frame encased in concrete with a lining of Portland limestone. The bottom two floors extend through the park irregularly shaped. Furthermore rise five floors arranged in a cross shape, whose wings extend to the perimeter. These wings are set around a 53 meter high central tower.

The pediment above the seventh floor is decorated with a relief band and sculptures ( the four directions ) are under the name of The Four Winds known. Each direction is represented twice, so there are a total of eight such sculptures. There are also two sculptures that symbolize the day and night.

The sculptures come from the following artists:

  • Day and Night by Jacob Epstein
  • North Wind by Alfred Gerard
  • North Wind by Eric Gill
  • East Wind by Eric Gill
  • East Wind by Allan Wyon
  • South Wind by Eric Gill
  • Southwind by Eric Aumonier
  • West Wind by Samuel Rabinovitch
  • West Wind by Henry Moore

History

Holden had designed since 1923 for the Underground Electric Railways Company of London ( UERL ), the most important predecessor company of London Underground, various metro stations. In 1926 he received from UERL Managing Director Frank Pick commissioned a new representative office through the station St James's Park to design, to replace the outgrown Electric Railway House on the same site. When the building was opened in 1929, it was the tallest office building in London's steel skeleton construction. Two years later, Holden received the London Architecture Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The modernity and the pictorial nudity of jobs created by Jacob Epstein sculptures Day and Night attended after unveiling a scandal. Various newspapers launched campaigns to bring the offending sculptures disappear. They are " obscene", " bestial " and would " nightmares " same. Lord Colwyn, one of the directors was even willing to accept the demolition costs. Pick accepted full responsibility and offered to resign. Epstein finally agreed, the protruding penis of the Day Sculpture to reduce by nearly four inches, then calmed tempers.

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