Sampson House

When Sampson House was completed, the architectural press placed it amongst a group of new banking buildings in London. The Architect mentioned it as contrasting against ‘Lloyd’s rival’, the NatWest whose tower was similar in floor area, but little else [1]. Building also compared it with a NatWest building, a ‘down-at-heel warehouse’ in Aldgate [2]. In 1970, British Rail’s Property Board took the decision to build on the site of the former Blackfriars goods depot. GLC and Southwark planners insisted on a mixed use development and Kings Reach Development Company appointed Fitzroy Robinson and Partners to design a scheme with social housing, a pub, gardens and a riverside walkway. Lloyds, meanwhile, were looking for a suitable site for their computer operations centre and Bankside offered the correct standard of data communications provided by the Post Office. Fitzroy Robinson duly adjusted their scheme to accommodate the ‘enormous bulk’ [3]. Buildings of this type had to be in London, close to headquarters, but did warrant the expense of constructing in the square mile. Large open plan spaces over eight floors were illuminated by constant artificial light and ventilated by continuous mechanical means. Processing cheques and housing the bank’s computer were described as ‘quasi-industrial functions’ and the form that emerged to serve these was likened by The Architect to an ocean liner, long, narrow, with decks, lift shafts that rose like funnels and an exterior robustness that seemed ‘designed to withstand Atlantic storms’ [4] whereas Builder’s nautical comparison was to that of a ‘heroic aircraft carrier’ [5]. The sheer scale of the building was somewhat hidden, hunkered up against the railway viaduct and harrd to view in its entirety from any vantage point. An independent power generating system supported the computing ‘without reliance on the vagaries of the National Grid’ [6]. Its ribbed concrete and gun metal zinc dressings made it a darling of the Instagram led brutalism fan club, yet, despite its resurgent popularity, it was demolished in 2019 even though its design life was an intended 125 years.

[1] The Architect, June 1979, pp.14-17.

[2] Building, 1 June 1979, pp.24-26.

[3] The Architect, June 1979, pp.14-17.

[4] The Architect, June 1979, pp.14-17.

[5] Building, 1 June 1979, pp.24-26.

[6] Building, 1 June 1979, pp.24-26.