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 red telephone box, a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar.
The BT Tower is a grade II listed communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London, owned by BT Group. It was also know as the GPO Tower and the Post Office Tower. It was later officially renamed the Telecom Tower. The main structure is 177 metres (581 ft) high, with a further section of aerial rigging bringing the total height to 189 metres (620 ft).
Guardian Exchange was an underground telephone exchange built in Manchester from 1954 to 1957. It was built together with the Anchor exchange in Birmingham and the Kingsway exchange in London – all believed to provide hardened communications in the event of nuclear war; as well as linking the UK government in London to the US Government in Washington, D.C. by means of a secure and hardened transatlantic telephone cable making landfall near Oban and running through Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham. Today, the underground site is used for telephone cabling. Constructed at a depth of below 35 metres (115 ft), the tunnels are about 2 metres (80 in) in diameter. The exchange cost around £4 million, part of which was funded by the United Kingdom's NATO partners.
The Royal Exchange in London was founded in the 16th century by the merchant Sir Thomas Gresham on the suggestion of his factor Richard Clough to act as a centre of commerce for the City of London. The site was provided by the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers, who still jointly own the freehold. The original foundation was ceremonially opened by Queen Elizabeth I who granted it its "royal" title. The current building is trapezoidal in floor plan and is flanked by Cornhill and Threadneedle Street, which converge at Bank junction in the heart of the city. It lies in the ward of Cornhill.
St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe is a Church of England church located on Queen Victoria Street, London in the City of London, near Blackfriars station.
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.
The BT Archives is an archive preserving the documentary heritage of the British telecoms company BT and its public sector predecessors. It is designated an official place of deposit for Public Records, for those records created prior to BT's privatisation in 1984.
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.
Puddle Dock is a street in Blackfriars in the City of London. It was once the site of one of London's docks, and was later the site of the Mermaid Theatre. The dock was filled in during redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Faraday Building is in the south-west of the City of London. It was originally built as a sorting office for the General Post Office. In 1902 it was converted to a telephone exchange serving sections of London, and underwent several capacity expansions over the next several years.
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.
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. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. Similar General Post Offices were established across the British Empire. In 1969 the GPO was abolished and the assets transferred to The Post Office, changing it from a Department of State to a statutory corporation. In 1980, the telecommunications and postal sides were split prior to British Telecommunications' conversion into a totally separate publicly owned corporation the following year as a result of the British Telecommunications Act 1981. For the more recent history of the postal system in the United Kingdom, see the articles Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd.
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.
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 architecture of Belfast comprises architectural styles ranging from Georgian through to modernist buildings such as the Waterfront Hall and Titanic Belfast. The city's Victorian and Edwardian buildings are notable for their display of a large number of sculptures. Many of Belfast's Victorian era landmarks, including the main Lanyon Building at Queens University, were designed by Sir Charles Lanyon.
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.
Coordinates: 51°30.7151′N0°6.0734′W / 51.5119183°N 0.1012233°W
