A much-fought for building in the City of London, the neo-gothic Mappin & Webb building was built in the 19th century as a branch of the royal jewellers, Mappin & Webb.
Located on the corner of Poultry and Victoria Street opposite Mansion House – the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, the triangular-shaped building was designed by John Belcher and completed in 1870.
The building, which featured a cone-roofed tower on the main corner of the site, was granted Grade II status
Following a long – and complicated – battle over the future of the site (which involved no less than Prince Charles), the Mappin & Webb building was demolished in 1994.
The site is now 1 Poultry, which was completed in 1997 and subsequently became the youngest building to be listed as Grade II*. It was designed by James Stirling and is considered an exemplar of post-modernist architecture.
PICTURE: The Mappin & Webb building in 1993 (Derek Voller (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0))
The demolition of the Mappin & Webb building, (along with several other victorian neighbours) should never have been allowed. Such a wanton act of vandalism on the city landscape was driven by the greed and ego of the developer. The ugly and overbearing structure (designed by James Stirling) which now occupies the sitei, has no redeeming features, looking as it does, to be constructed from monstrous ‘Lego’ bricks.
Reassuringly, No 1 Poultry’s listed status, affords it no more protection from demolition than its predecessor. Hopefully it will be expunged before too long, to be triumphantly replaced by a reconstruction of its elegant gothic predecessor.
That’s an excellent find!
I know Mappin and Webb very well from impressive silver and silver plated art objects, but not for architecture. Whoever had the Mappin & Webb building demolished in 1994 should be locked in a small gaol cell with a hungry crocodile.