Salvation Army HQ
101 Queen Victoria Street
London
EC4V 4EH
Visitor Information
Architect: Sheppard Robson
Built: 2005
Size: 36,770m²
It might seem incongruous for the largest voluntary care organisation in the world to reside alongside some of London’s wealthiest businesses, but its headquarters has stood on this site in Queen Victoria Street since 1881. The first building was destroyed during the Blitz in 1941, and replaced in 1963 with a design by the architects Lidbetter. The migration in 1990 of its domestic operation (now situated near Elephant and Castle) means that this building occupies just one third of the original site. The remaining two-thirds is now a matching office block, and the army premises have, on the back of this commercial development, been rebuilt almost for free.
It is a prime spot between St Paul’s Cathedral and Millennium Bridge, which is crossed by around 10,000 people every day. The £30m building, which was opened by The Princess Royal, is a highly glazed, steel-framed cube filled with light, thanks to the huge glass windows of its welcoming entrance hall. A white-painted steel frame in the shape of a splayed H sits inside the outer walls, from the basement to the fifth-floor ceiling meaning the offices appear transparent from the exterior but private inside. The lower three floors comprise a public cafe, board rooms and meetings rooms and executive offices while the upper three floors are open plan offices. The first-floor chapel is walled in amber glass and projects over St Peter’s Hill; daylight is filtered through louvres. Sheer glass walls surround three sides of the building and are emblazoned with quotes from the gospels.