Unilever House
100 Victoria Embankment
London
EC4Y ODY
W: unilever.com
Visitor Information
Architect: James Lomax with Burnet, Tait and Partners; Kohn Pedersen Fox (renovation)
Built: 1930-32
Size: 46 metres high; 4,505m²
Awards: Grade II listed
The enormous curved frontage and imposing Ionic columns of Grade II listed Unilever House are an arresting sight as you cross Blackfriars Bridge from south to north. Built by James Lomax in a neo-classical Art Deco style, it stands on the former site of Henry VIII’s Bridewell Palace (1523) and later the De Keyser Royal Hotel (1874). In 1553 Edward VI gave the palace to the City of London for use as a workhouse, where harsh conditions meant that it was a prison in all but name and ‘Bridewell’ soon became the common term for a house of correction.
Lever Brothers leased the De Keyser Royal in 1921 and in 1930 (the same year their soap company became Unilever) they bought the building and demolished it to create their headquarters. The Lord Mayor of London, Sir Maurice Jenks, opened the £550,000 building in 1932 and the company's HQ remains here nearly 100 years on. The building appears tiered, like a giant stone cake: its quadrant curves down Victoria Embankment and the heavily rusticated ground floor projects strikingly – it is windowless to reduce traffic noise. Above is a layer of round-headed windows and a colonnade, 34 feet high, of 16 unfluted Ionic columns stretching from the fourth to the sixth floors. At each end are sculptures of giant figures restraining horses by Sir William Reid Dick and flagpoles; below are a mermaid and merman by Gilbert Ledward. The foundations rest on 1,780 piles, consisting of steel tubes filled with concrete, penetrating 45 feet into the substrata. 5,000 tons of steel, 400 miles of reinforced steel bars and 100,000 square feet of glass were used in construction.
A refurbishment in 1977-1983 saw windows pierced through the attic to create a new storey and a new north entrance lobby with neo Art Deco columns and fittings. A major overhaul between 2004 and 2007 saw the whole of the building behind the listed facade demolished and rebuilt to create a modern interior with a central atrium running the height of the building, open plan office space, glass walls and a roof garden. The main entrance with its bronze gates was also reinstated in the centre of the building. The project was overseen by Kohn Pedersen Fox and the City of London in association with English Heritage and was opened by Lord Mayor John Stuttard in 2007.