By Helen Unsworth,
Archivist and Records Manager
Average read time: 2 minutes
Our recent project to digitise some of our historical staff magazines continues to turn up little gems from the history of Unilever, therefore we’re sharing the story of the 1930’s refurbishment of Unilever House, Blackfriars, or 100VE as most of us know it now.
The story of the refurbishment starts with the deconstruction of the old Unilever House, once the renowned De Keyser’s Royal Hotel. Demolition began on 10th June 1930 and was described at the time as one of the biggest tasks of destruction ever undertaken in London. Workers excavated to the level of the Thames bed for the foundations of the new building. Among the historic discoveries made at the time were a flight of wooden steps, built into the soil of the riverbank, which according to the London Evening News of the time was one of the many points for accessing the boats which were an important feature of London traffic at a time when London Bridge was the only bridge in London.
As the construction of the new building got underway, a notice was posted on the surrounding hoardings that the London City Council had consented to the erection of a building taller than that prescribed by the London Building Act. The new build went up incredibly quickly, only 10 months after the demolition had begun the last of the 1,780 piles which formed the foundations was driven into position with an ever-growing skeleton of steel rising up out of the ground. A little more than a year later Unilever House was ready to welcome back its staff.
For those of you who like a few statistics, the new building included 3,500,000 bricks, 100,000 square feet of glass, 1,250,000 wood blocks for flooring and 250 miles of electrical wiring. The height of the building from street level to the roof was 120 feet and 6 inches, and 2 artesian wells, sunk to a depth of 600 feet provided for a consumption of 60 gallons of water per day.
The building was constructed with “anti-noise” features, which included designing the 20 foot high ground floor wall as a solid screen without windows and setting the main structure back 12 feet from the street line. Built with incredible speed, and ready for its official re-opening just 2 years after the initial deconstruction began, it was reported in the press as being one of the quickest building performances of the day on record!
The new Unilever House was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of London at 3pm on the 18th July 1932.
The later addition of the eighth floor in 1936 was considered an internal reconstruction, and to this day the exterior has remained pretty much unchanged.