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The Empress State Building is a high rise building on the
From emporis.com
Office buildings completed in 1961 Skyscrapers in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Earls Court West Brompton Skyscraper office buildings in London Metropolitan Police administrative buildings {{London-struct-stub
The Empress State Building is a high rise building on the West Brompton
West Brompton is an area of south-west London, that straddles the boundary between the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The centuries-old boundary was traced by Counter's Creek, now lost b ...
/Earl's Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
border in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The borou ...
(West London). Its full address is Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, West Brompton, London, SW6 1TR.
History
The building is named after the Empress Hall which formerly stood on the site, and in tribute to the Empire State Building. It was completed in 1962 for theAdmiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
on the site of the former Empress Hall and ice rink as a commercial building and was tall with 28 floors, designed by Stone, Toms & Partners and was briefly the tallest commercial building in London until Millbank Tower was built in 1962. It was renovated in 2003 to a design by Wilkinson Eyre Architects
WilkinsonEyre is an international architecture practice based in London, England. In 1983 Chris Wilkinson founded Chris Wilkinson Architects, he partnered with Jim Eyre in 1987 and the practice was renamed WilkinsonEyre in 1999. The practice ha ...
. Three floors and were added to its height. Plus a frontal extension of 5 meters 'Orbit' is the name given to the private revolving bar on the top floor which offers panoramic views of London.The revolving bar element was shut down
This building was originally designed as a hotel but was first used by the Admiralty and GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
. The Directorate of Naval Shore Telecommunications (formerly the Naval Shore Telecommunications Authority) had their national headquarters in the building in the 1980s and 90s.
Metropolitan Police offices
The building is occupied by staff from the Metropolitan Police Service who refer to it as ESB. Among other things, until 2020 the building was home to the assessment centre for prospective police officers. Some of the upper floors were occupied by staff from Transport for London until 2010. An annexe at the entrance to the site housed the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre until January 2020. In March 2018 the London mayor's office agreed to buy the ESB estate for its MPS operations from Capco Plc, the developer of the adjacentEarl's Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
regeneration scheme, for £250 million to house a new Counter Terrorism Operations Centre combining police and intelligence agencies' counter-terrorism units. Funding for that project was confirmed in November 2020 and the building is expected to re-open in that role by late 2025.
On 15 October 2019 the building received a Certificate of Immunity from listing by the then Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Nicky Morgan
Nicola Ann Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes, (; born 10 October 1972) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, ...
, which is due to expire on 14 October 2024.
See also
*Tall buildings in London
St Paul's Cathedral, built in 1710, was the tallest building in London at until it was overtaken in 1963 by the Millbank Tower at , which in turn was overtaken by the BT Tower which topped out at tall in 1964. In the 1960s and 1970s several ...
* Imre Kiralfy
References
Works cited
*External links
From emporis.com
Office buildings completed in 1961 Skyscrapers in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Earls Court West Brompton Skyscraper office buildings in London Metropolitan Police administrative buildings {{London-struct-stub