Metro Central Heights is a group of residential buildings in

Walworth Walworth ( ) is a district of South London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is south-east of Charing Cross. Major streets in Walworth include the ...

in the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council ...

. It was originally known as Alexander Fleming House, a multi-storey office complex designed by Hungarian-born

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Ernő Goldfinger Ernő Goldfinger (11 September 1902 – 15 November 1987) was a Hungarian-born British architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, and became a key member of the modernist architecture, Modernist architectur ...

and constructed in the early 1960s for Arnold Lee of Imry Properties.

Design

The design was favoured both by the property developer Imry and by the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

as it promised the largest amount of lettable space and therefore the best financial return for the site. Standing at a height of approximately 55 metres at its highest point, the initial plan included three freestanding blocks. Among these, two were seven stories tall, and one was eighteen stories tall, arranged around a central piazza. It is located on

Newington Causeway __NOTOC__ Newington Causeway is a road in Southwark, London, between the Elephant and Castle and Borough High Street. Elephant & Castle tube station, Elephant & Castle Underground station is at the southern end. It follows the route of the old ...

on the east side of the busy

Elephant and Castle Elephant and Castle is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The n ...

junction in inner south-east

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Ernő Goldfinger proposed three main components of modern architecture, "the permanent structure; the much less permanent services and an even more fleeting component, the human requirements". These applied directly to the development where its eventual use was not known at the time of construction. Therefore, the internal design of the building was made as flexible as possible, providing open decks which could be readily subdivided and services re-routed. The building's original tenant was the

Department of Health and Social Security The Department of Health and Social Security (commonly known as the DHSS) was a Ministry (government department), ministry of the Her Majesty's Government, British government in existence for twenty years from 1968 until 1988, and was headed b ...

, known as the Ministry of Health at the time, which probably led to its being named Alexander Fleming House, after the discoverer of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

. The development became its headquarters, and shortly afterwards

was commissioned to design two additional blocks, D and E. The building received a Civic Trust Award in 1964. The Health Department's headquarters became notorious for ''

sick building syndrome Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a condition in which people develop symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside. In scientific literature, SBS is also known as building-related illn ...

'' and the DHSS civil servants were moved out in the early 1990s to a new headquarters across the road, first of all to Hannibal House and then

Skipton House Skipton House is a high specification office building in Elephant and Castle, Central London. It was built for a Japanese bank and then sold on to accommodate staff of the Department of Health who were moved out of Alexander Fleming House. ...

. The Executive staff moved to new headquarters on

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

, Richmond House. The design flexibility served the building well when it was saved from demolition and converted into a residential development and renamed "Metro Central Heights" by St George Plc (a division of

Berkeley Group Holdings The Berkeley Group Holdings plc is a British Real estate development, property developer and Home construction, house-builder based in Cobham, Surrey, Cobham, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FT ...

) in 1997. It was narrowly missed off

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

's roll of post-war buildings worthy of listing around the same time. The conversion cured the sick building syndrome, and added a gym and swimming pool to the complex. It now contains some 400 studio to three-bedroom flats which are in constant demand, especially by "young urban professionals" who value Elephant and Castle's proximity to the City and West End. At the time of conversion the distinctive bare concrete specified by Goldfinger was painted white. Planning permission was granted on appeal for a further 15-storey block by St George Plc named Vantage Metro Central on what was formerly the development's surface car park in February 2004. This was completed in late 2008. This had originally been the site of both the Odeon cinema, also designed by Ernő Goldfinger but demolished by Imry in 1988, and the huge Trocadero cinema that was cleared for blocks D and E of the development itself. Metro Central Heights became a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on 9 July 2013, when the

Minister for Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizat ...

Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A mem ...

MP accepted English Heritage's recommendation that it should be listed at

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

References

External links

Local History of Metro Central Heights (researched at Southwark Local History Library)
* {{coord, 51.49581, N, 0.09924, W, source:placeopedia, display=title Year of establishment missing Modernist architecture in London National government buildings in London Building biology Residential buildings in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Southwark Ernő Goldfinger buildings Recipients of Civic Trust Awards Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark 1960s establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in the 1960s

Design

See also

References

External links