Shell Centre

The Shell Centre stands on Belvedere Road in the London Borough of Lambeth. It occupies part of the site cleared for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The area near the River Thames includes Jubilee Gardens and the South Bank Centre. A restrictive covenant prevents any building between the Shell Tower and the river. The site was once divided into Upstream and Downstream areas by the railway viaduct to Hungerford Bridge.

The Shell Centre was Shell’s global headquarters and once held records for height and floor space. The tower was the first London office tower taller than the Palace of Westminster’s Victoria Tower. It replaced the Midland Grand Hotel as London’s tallest building and the Royal Liver Building as the UK’s tallest. The building’s Portland Stone cladding has weathered better than many contemporaries. Original interiors featured work by Ernesto Nathan Rogers and a British design team from the Festival of Britain.

The Upstream Building’s courtyard once held sculptures by Franta Belsky and Siegfried Charoux. The site included staff amenities like a swimming pool, gymnasium, rifle range, and a theatre designed by Cecil Beaton. The Shell Centre’s air conditioning system draws water from the Thames near County Hall. The tower’s basement once housed a supermarket, snooker room, and other facilities. The redeveloped Southbank Place now surrounds the original tower with taller glazed buildings.