Macadam and Strand Buildings

Something of a darling to brutalist appreciation societies, this scheme was not widely published at the time of its construction, nor the winner of any architectural awards. Built in two phases – the Macadam building to the rear was completed in 1975 – brutalism was really old hat by this time, as more human-centred and environmental approaches to architecture had begun to emerge both through journals and in the profession. Fundamentally, this is commercially driven architecture dressed in a brutalist style – aesthetic over ethic. However, whilst hard in its material expression, the modelling of the façade has mannerist tendencies that attempt to reconcile its modern construction with its historic setting. Next to Somerset House (Sir William Chambers, 1786), and opposite the church of St. Mary-Le-Strand (James Gibbs, 1717), with modelled and rusticated stonework typical of this part of London, the building for King’s College exhibits a clear series of formal moves to respond to its context. The concrete screen stands in front of the glazing of the façade and gives solar shading and articulation to the elevation. It also picks out the banding and cornice heights of the adjoining buildings, its own cornice is finished in Cornish granite. The upper three floors were set back to reduce the overall mass and impact. For some, it has aged well and been acceded to its streetscape, becoming a period piece and part of the historic tableaux. For others, including Ptolemy Dean it is an abhorrence, his view is that, ‘In 1966, the college erected a long (and frankly hideous) concrete entrance building. Like a giant and grotesquely over-scaled mouth organ…’ [1] Despite the fact that Dean didn’t get his dates right, his is a view that is still popularly shared – concrete as a shorthand for ugly – yet, for Concrete Quarterly (one of the few journals to review it), the building proudly displayed its ‘Manners in the Strand’. [2]

[1] Dean, P. (2015) ‘A wreck upon the Strand?’, Country Life, vol.29, no.12, 18 March 2015, p.98

[2] Concrete Quarterly, April-June 1972, p.37