Bastion House aka 140 London Wall is a huge modernist monolith, reminiscent of the monolith in “2001 – A Space Odyssey”. I couldn’t find a site to draw the monolith part today, so here is a view at Podium Level, looking West towards the Museum of London.
You see the dark undercroft, walkways and a road to a car park. Also you see the bridge that crosses London Wall.
http://postwarbuildings.com describes it thus:
“London Wall was part of a movement of amazing optimism and faith in the ideology of architectural modernism and its promise of a new built form for the city following the devastation of the blitz. It demonstrates what was possible within the breadth of vision following the Second World War and the new powers of centralised planning control. The London that emerged from the ruins of war was to be the remedy to the haphazard milieu of previous. London Wall emerged as a segment of architectural clarity, symbolic of the efforts of the public body to exercise control over the built environment and crucially attempts on the private sector.”
Architects: Powell and Moya, 1972
Here are some images of the monolith in the film “2001 – A Space Odyssey” (1968) which surely influenced, or was influenced by, architecture of the period.
I recently learned that Bastion House is going to be demolished, along with the Museum of London which is adjacent. That’s why I rushed out to draw it. The building is not listed. Here is the “immunity” listing, which is the reverse of a listing:
downloaded from: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1427161
I drew Bastion House from a very convenient ledge behind an iron gate. About an hour and 20mins.
Here is a drawing of the Museum of London which I did last year:
Bastion House is just off to the right.
Jane Sketching 