Baynard House is a brutalist office block in Queen Victoria Street in Blackfriars in the City of London, occupied by BT Group. It was built on the site of Baynard's Castle. [1] Most of the land under it is a scheduled monument. [2] [3] From 1982 to 1997 it housed the BT Museum.
The building was designed by William Holford incorporating a separation of pedestrians from streets, with a first-floor adjoining walkway along Queen Victoria Street that connects to Blackfriars station. [4] The entrance foyer to Baynard House remains off this first floor level. A plaque in the building foyer reads:
"BAYNARD HOUSE handed over on 5th July 1979 to PETER BENTON Esq., Managing Director Telecommunications, Architects: Holford / PSA; Construction: John Laing" [5]
Legislation protecting the sightline of St Paul's Cathedral from bridges across the Thames and from places such as Putney and Richmond Park restricted the overall height of the building to three full levels above ground. [6]
Baynard House was for a few years a telephone exchange, and housed the first operational System X telephone exchange, which went live in 1980. [7] [8] From 1982 to 1997 it housed the BT Museum.
It is the site of an unusual cast aluminium public sculpture by Richard Kindersley, entitled The Seven Ages of Man. [9] [10] The sculpture, consisting of a column made up of sculptural heads resembling a totem pole, was commissioned by Post Office Telecommunications and unveiled in April 1980.
As of 2012 [update] it had the largest solar panel area in the City of London and the second largest of a corporate building in the UK. [11]
The Faraday Building, one of the first major telephone exchanges in the UK, is across the road.
Actor Tom Cruise broke his ankle whilst performing a stunt, jumping from the roof in 2017, shooting scenes for the film Mission: Impossible – Fallout . [12]
BT Group plc is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services.
The Isle of Man has an extensive communications infrastructure consisting of telephone cables, submarine cables, and an array of television and mobile phone transmitters and towers.
The red telephone box, is a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for Liverpool Cathedral.
The BT Tower is a grade II listed communications tower in Fitzrovia, London, England, owned by BT Group. It was also known as the GPO Tower and the Post Office Tower. It was later officially renamed the Telecom Tower. The main structure is 581 feet (177 m) high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 620 feet (189 m).
Baynard's Castle refers to buildings on two neighbouring sites in the City of London, between where Blackfriars station and St Paul's Cathedral now stand. The first was a Norman fortification constructed by Ralph Baynard, 1st feudal baron of Little Dunmow in Essex, and was demolished by King John in 1213. The second was a medieval palace built a short distance to the south-east and later extended, but mostly destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. According to Sir Walter Besant, "There was no house in [London] more interesting than this".
The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten.
The BT Tower, formerly known as the Post Office Tower and the GPO Tower, is a landmark and telecommunications tower in Birmingham, England. It is the tallest structure in the city. Its post office code was YBMR.
Montfichet's Tower was a Norman fortress on Ludgate Hill in London, between where St Paul's Cathedral and City Thameslink railway station now stand. First documented in the 1130s, it was probably built in the late 11th century. The defences were strengthened during the revolt of 1173–1174 against Henry II.
The Faraday Building is in the south-west of the City of London. The land was first acquired by the General Post Office in the 1870s, for the Post Office Savings Bank. In 1902 it was converted to a GPO telephone exchange serving sections of London, and underwent several capacity expansions over the next several years. The eastern extension of the building stands on the site of Doctors' Commons whose members had lower-courts say in ecclesiastical and admiralty matters.
Castle Baynard is one of the 25 wards of the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London, England.
Queen Victoria Street, named after the British monarch who reigned from 1837 to 1901, is a street in London which runs east by north from its junction with New Bridge Street and Victoria Embankment in the Castle Baynard ward of the City of London, along a section that divides the wards of Queenhithe and Bread Street, then lastly through the middle of Cordwainer ward, until it reaches Mansion House Street at Bank junction. Beyond Bank junction, the street continues north-east as Threadneedle Street which joins Bishopsgate. Other streets linked to Queen Victoria Street include Puddle Dock, Cannon Street, Walbrook and Poultry.
The Harris Museum is a Grade I-listed building in Preston, Lancashire, England. Founded by Edmund Harris in 1877, it is a local history and fine art museum.
Unilever House is a Grade II listed office building in the Neoclassical Art Deco style, located on New Bridge Street, Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars, London. The building has a tall, curving frontage which overlooks Blackfriars Bridge on the north bank of the River Thames.
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver ; it was overseen by a Government minister, the Postmaster General. Over time its remit was extended to Scotland and Ireland, and across parts of the British Empire.
The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory. The Barbican Centre is a member of the Global Cultural Districts Network.
The BT Museum was a telecommunications museum run by BT, that held artefacts and exhibits on the history of telecommunications in the United Kingdom. It was based in Baynard House in the Blackfriars district of London.
Richard Kindersley is a British typeface designer, stone letter carver and sculptor.
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the National Theatre and BFI Southbank repertory cinema. Following a rebranding of the South Bank Centre to Southbank Centre in early 2007, the Hayward Gallery was known as the Hayward until early 2011.
The KX series of telephone boxes in the United Kingdom was introduced by BT in 1985. Following the privatisation of BT in 1984, the company decided to create a newly designed and improved take on the British telephone box, which at this point consisted of only red telephone boxes which BT had recently acquired, the most common being the iconic K6 box. These red boxes were considered flawed in parts by BT for several reasons, including cost, lack of ventilation, accessibility and maintenance. BT announced the £160 million series of new boxes, the KX series designed by GKN, as well as announcing the eventual replacement of all existing telephone boxes. The main telephone box in the KX range is the KX100. Upon launch, there were five models in total. The boxes were produced at a rate of 5,000 a year, with the total count of all BT-owned kiosks reaching 137,000 by 1999, a number which has since decreased by more than seventy per cent.
Mondial House was a main telecommunications hub in central London on the banks of the River Thames. It was known as an international switching centre (ISC). Built in 1978 the building was seen as controversially modern-looking. It was demolished in 2006.
