The opening of New Zealand House

Our search through Building’s archive, which goes back 170 years, has turned up a real gem this week: the opening of New Zealand House, London, in May 1963.

Readers may recall that our current architectural correspondent Ike Ijeh lambasted this building only last week in a feature about the capital’s sixties tower blocks. It’s fair to say that Ike was quite critical of the eight buildings in his piece, and in particular he accused New Zealand House of causing “irreparable damage to local historic character”.

In contrast, the view at The Builder, as it was then called, was that it was “now probably the finest office building in London”. It displayed photographs and drawings over five pages.

Now probably the finest office building in London

The Builder, May 1963

The Builder has the following description of the newly finished, which it reported as costing £2.5m:

“At ground floor level is a spacious entrance hall paved with white Pentellic marble which is entered from either the Haymarket or the Royal Opera Arcade. At this level too is the reception hall with its mezzanine galley, panelled in rimu bought speciallhy from New Zealand.”

The opening page of the review listed the project team as including: Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners, architects; Franklin& Andrews, quantity surveyors; Scott & Wilson, Kirkpatrick & Partners, consulting engineers; J.Roger Preston & Partners, services consultants; Holland & Hannen and Cubbits Ltd, main contractors

We just love the photo of staff busy at their typewriters (top and repeated below), helpfully captioned “a typical office” - so Mad Men.