Senate House Tower — the Capital's First Skyscraper

Abstract

This article follows the ideology of the architect Charles Holden through his exploitation of space above and below ground: from his achievement in the design of Senate House Tower, for many years the tallest secular building in London, to his substantial contribution to the London Underground. As a designer, Charles Holden's legacy has become integral to the identity of London. Having become appropriated in film, literature and the visual arts, buildings and interiors designed by Holden have acquired a certain indelible significance. Jane Boyd is an installation artist whose work is often directly born of a specific architectural location such as the Pantheon in Rome and more recently, as this article reveals, Senate House Tower in London.