Art Deco power stations. Gothic cathedrals. Brutalist tower blocks. London is alive with architectural contrasts. Here are our picks for five of the most interesting buildings in London.
Lloyd's Building
The high-tech home of global insurance
Taran Wilkhu
The guts of this building – including lifts, bathrooms, pipework and mechanics – live on the outside; a clever move by the architects, allowing insurance broker Lloyd’s of London to monopolise the inside. Rogers et al pioneered a trading floor that expands via a series of galleries; while the steel-clad frame gives Gothic attitude, towering above people traffic, like high-tech artwork against the 19th-century Leadenhall Market. In 2011, it joined the select club of Modernist Grade I listed structures – just what every building wants for its 25th birthday. Tip: sweet talk the Lloyd’s CEO for an invite to dine in the private, 1763 reconstructed Adam Room.
British Museum
A Classical monolith of calm
Taran Wilkhu
At the heart of this cultural institution is the Great Court – the largest, and arguably most extraordinary, covered courtyard in Europe. Added in 2000, consider this proof that the architecture of one era really can be enhanced by another. And if the promise of a vast two-acre, two-century-old Greek Revivalist masterpiece isn’t enough, it’s topped by a hypnotic tessellated glass roof. Architecture turns artwork with geometric shadow patterns cast across the light-filled space. Explore the museum’s renowned archive of artefacts; or just sit back in what is one of central London’s most serene meeting spots.
Rio Cinema
Cult Art Deco movie house
Taran Wilkhu
Of all the Art Deco cinemas in the city, this is the leader for retro nostalgia. It comes alive after dark, a romantically lit beacon drawing crowds to its corner of Kingsland High Street. Once an auctioneer’s shop, it’s one of London’s first picture houses, established by businesswoman Clara Ludski in 1915. Today’s auditorium was created in 1937 in the shell of the original space; and through a trapdoor in the roof, echoes of the old cinema can still be seen. Book in for a cult classic throwback (or a new release), and have a pre-movie drink in the basement bar.
107 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB
Dalston Kingsland
Hoover Building
Art Deco off the A40
Taran Wilkhu
A dual-carriageway might not be the obvious place for an archi-tour, but lo and behold: the Hoover Building. Originally the vacuum cleaner’s HQ in the 1930s, by the 1980s Tesco moved in and, conveniently, there’s still a store at the back. Where else can you shop for groceries in an Art Deco monument? In 2015, part of the building was transformed into luxe apartments. The heritage features – grand staircases with wrought-iron banisters and terrazzo flooring – have polished up beautifully, and the green-and-black geometric details run from the neo-Egyptian façade throughout. Look out for its bright white cement (‘snowcrete’) finish next time you drive by.
Western Avenue, UB6 8AT
Perivale
Peckham Library
A Futuristic neighbourhood escape
Taran Wilkhu
This spaceship-esqe structure landed in the urban sprawl of south east London in 2000, winning the Stirling Prize the same year and kicking off a fun future for 21st-century community architecture. It’s now an established Peckham landmark, taking visitors on a journey to a new realm via its copper-clad L-shaped silhouette, with technicoloured glazing on one side and stilts on the other. Inside are three raised sycamore-veneer pods, housing cave-like reading rooms for storytelling, community meetings or just hiding away with your favourite architecture book (hello!).
122 Peckham Hill Street, SE15 5JR
Peckham Rye
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