No building is literally colourless – but some buildings are more colourful than others, and just occasionally a building’s coloration becomes central to its architectural identity.
This tour ran through the full psychedelic spectrum from the muted and monochrome to the vibrant and rainbow-hued, looking at a range of structures in which architects both ancient and modern have wielded the colour palette to particularly dazzling effect.
Golden Lane Estate – Chamberlin, Powell and Bon design 1952 – built in phases 1953-62.
Boundary Estate – LCC Architects – 1890-1900
Close-up of Boundary Estate building
7 Lothbury – George Somers Clarke – 1866
1 Poultry – James Stirling – design 1988, built 1994-8
Prudential Assurance Building – Alfred & Paul Waterhouse – 1885-1901, 1989-93
St Alban Holborn – William Butterfield, chapel C Mileham, rebuilt Adrian Gilbert Scott – 1859-62, 1891, 1961
St Alban Holborn – mural Hans Feibusch – 1966
Central St Giles – Renzo Piano Building Workshop – 2010
Champion pub c.1860 (our stop for lunch), Wells St – glass by Anne Sotheran – c 1990s
Liberty’s, Gt Marlborough St – Edwin & Stanley Hall – 1922-4
Ideal House, 1-6 Argyll St – Raymond Hood & Gordon Jeeves – 1928-9
Alliance Insurance, 1-2 & 87-8 St James’s Street – Richard Norman Shaw – 1882 & 1903-4
St James’ Ct, Buckingham Gate – CJ Chirney Pawley, Alexander Graham, Henry Bushnell – 1896-1905
Westminster Academy – Allford Hall Monaghan – 2007
St Sophia’s Cathedral – John Oldrid Scott, mosaics by AG Walker (1890s) and Boris Anrep (1926) – 1878-9
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Thanks to ride leader David Garrard of English Heritage
