Senate House, University of London
Charles Holden’s ‘building for 500 years’ becomes Orwell’s Ministry of Information but not Hitler’s London headquarters
This is №2 in an irregular series of reports from London’s Open House weekend: Senate House, University of London (№1 was the Daily Express Building, Fleet Street.) (Ed. This piece first published at cityofsound.com on 21 November 2003. Please excuse the image quality of my photos from Open House; they were taken on a ~2003-era digital camera.)
Senate House is of a similar vintage to the Express building yet feels more of a transition point; balancing classicism and modernity beautifully.
Indeed, before I continue, it’s worth nothing that if any of you want real facts and academic opinion on the building, I can recommend Classicism and Modernity: The University of London’s Senate House, by Richard Simpson, reprinted from the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 43–1999, (School of Advanced Study, University of London), which is largely the source of quotations here, unless noted otherwise. Otherwise, reportage is based principally on wandering around with a camera.
Facts first: constructed throughout the mid-1930s, Senate House was designed by the brilliant Charles Holden, architect of several undoubted…
