Eighty Strand

Eighty Strand is a grade II listed building in the City of Westminster. It stands between the Adelphi building and the Savoy Hotel, behind the original façade of the former Hotel Cecil. Designed by Frances Milton Cashmore, the building is broadly Art Deco in style. It rises 58 m with 12 floors and a sub-basement, overlooking the River Thames and the South Bank. The south side features a large clock flanked by four marble figures sculpted by William Charles Holland King. The building was opened in 1932 as Shell Mex House, headquarters of Shell-Mex & BP. During World War II it housed the Ministry of Supply and the Petroleum Board. A bomb in 1940 caused serious damage before it reverted to Shell-Mex & BP in 1948. The Royal Air Force was formed here in 1918, and a green plaque marks the spot. Nikolaus Pevsner called it “thoroughly unsubtle, but…hold[s] its own in London’s river front.” Visitors approach through a gated archway set back from the Strand. Inside, the entrance leads to floors now occupied mainly by companies belonging to Pearson plc. The clock faces are 7.62 m across, the largest in the UK. Outside, the Strand façade and river elevation frame views of the Thames and South Bank.