Northern Ventilation Shaft to the Blackwall Tunnel Southbound
NORTHERN VENTILATION SHAFT TO THE BLACKWALL TUNNEL SOUTHBOUND, BLACKWALL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1246738
- Date first listed:
- 20-Dec-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Northern Ventilation Shaft to the Blackwall Tunnel Southbound
- Statutory Address:
- NORTHERN VENTILATION SHAFT TO THE BLACKWALL TUNNEL SOUTHBOUND, BLACKWALL
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1246738
- Date first listed:
- 20-Dec-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Northern Ventilation Shaft to the Blackwall Tunnel Southbound
- Statutory Address 1:
- NORTHERN VENTILATION SHAFT TO THE BLACKWALL TUNNEL SOUTHBOUND, BLACKWALL
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- NORTHERN VENTILATION SHAFT TO THE BLACKWALL TUNNEL SOUTHBOUND, BLACKWALL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Tower Hamlets (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 38565 80604
Details
TQ3880
788/3/10119
20-DEC-00
BLACKWALL
(East,off)
Northern Ventilation Shaft to the Blackwall Tunnel southbound
GV
II
Ventilation tower for the forced air and exhaust equipment serving the southward Blackwall Tunnel. Designed 1961-2, built 1964-7 by the London County Council's Architect's Department Special Works Division, subsequently that of the Greater London Council, group leader Eric Hayes, job architect Terry Farrell. The engineers were Flint and Neill, working with the Cement Gun Company and the LCC/GLC's Engineer's Department. Sprayed concrete (gunite) shells supported on stressed cables from a reinforced concrete slab, over perimeter walls of blue brick and glass. The shell roof is supported from the slab, which contains instruments. The concrete grillage holding this includes a spiral stair and a crawl-way ducting system linking the electrical installation to the motors from the switch room and transformers, and contains an airlock access to the tunnel below. The instruments measure the air pollution. The shells, coated with bitumen and cement paint to prevent corrosion, were an early use of gunite as a building material, rather than a repair material, chosen because it reduced the need for expensive shuttering.
The ventilation towers were the principal work of Terry Farrell when he was briefly employed at the LCC between September 1961 and March or April 1962. Their curved form was inspired by Oscar Niemeyer's work at Brasilia, then first appearing in the architectural press. Farrell compares the romantic structure of these very industrial buildings with the rugged machine aesthetic subsequently adopted for housing and office buildings in the Poplar area, and the curved forms of the two ventilation towers makes a strong contrast with the nearby Reuter's Building and Robin Hood Gardens. They remain unique in Farrell's built oeuvre, which was subsequently to be more inspired by contemporary American architecture, and in particular by the work of Louis Kahn, under whom he subsequently studied at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sources
Architectural Design, June 1964, pp.287-8
Perspectives on Architecture, April/May 1996, p.96
Information and original drawings supplied by Terry Farrell
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 486933
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Perspectives on Architecture in Perspectives on Architecture - April/May, (1996), 96
Architectural Design in June, (1964), 287-88
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 15-Jun-2026 at 14:18:26.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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