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Metro Central Heights

1960s establishments in EnglandBuilding biologyBuildings and structures completed in the 1960sBuildings and structures in the London Borough of SouthwarkErnő Goldfinger buildings
Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of SouthwarkModernist architecture in LondonNational government buildings in LondonRecipients of Civic Trust AwardsResidential buildings in LondonVague or ambiguous time from September 2015Year of establishment missing
MetroCentralHeights1
MetroCentralHeights1

Metro Central Heights is a group of residential buildings in Walworth in the London Borough of Southwark. It was originally known as Alexander Fleming House, a multi-storey office complex designed by Hungarian-born modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger and constructed in the early 1960s for Arnold Lee of Imry Properties. The design was favoured both by the property developer Imry and by the London County Council as it promised the largest amount of lettable space and therefore the best financial return for the site. Some 55 m tall at its highest point, the original scheme consisted of three freestanding blocks, two of seven storeys and one of eighteen, grouped around a central piazza. It is located on Newington Causeway on the east side of the busy Elephant and Castle junction in inner south-east London. Ernő Goldfinger proposed three main components of modern architecture, "the permanent structure; the much less permanent services and an even more fleeting component, the human requirements". These applied directly to the development where its eventual use was not known at the time of construction. Therefore, the internal design of the building was made as flexible as possible, providing open decks which could be readily subdivided and services re-routed. The building's original tenant was the Department of Health and Social Security, known as the Ministry of Health at the time, which probably led to its being named Alexander Fleming House, after the discoverer of penicillin. The development became its headquarters, and shortly afterwards Ernő Goldfinger was commissioned to design two additional blocks, D and E. The building received a Civic Trust Award in 1964.The Health Department's headquarters became notorious for sick building syndrome and the DHSS civil servants were moved out in the early 1990s to a new headquarters across the road, first of all to Hannibal House and then Skipton House. The Executive staff moved to new headquarters on Whitehall, Richmond House. The design flexibility served the building well when it was saved from demolition and converted into a residential development and renamed "Metro Central Heights" by St George Plc (a division of Berkeley Group Holdings) in 1997. It was narrowly missed off English Heritage's roll of post-war buildings worthy of listing around the same time. The conversion cured the sick building syndrome, and added a gym and swimming pool to the complex. It now contains some 400 studio to three-bedroom flats which are in constant demand, especially by "young urban professionals" who value Elephant and Castle's proximity to the City and West End. Planning permission was granted on appeal for a further 15-storey block by St George Plc named Vantage Metro Central on what was formerly the development's surface car park in February 2004. This was completed in late 2008. This had originally been the site of both the Odeon cinema, also designed by Ernő Goldfinger but demolished by Imry in 1988, and the huge Trocadero cinema that was cleared for blocks D and E of the development itself. Metro Central Heights became a listed building on 9 July 2013, when the Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey MP accepted English Heritage's recommendation that it should be listed at Grade II.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Metro Central Heights (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Metro Central Heights
Newington Causeway, London Elephant and Castle (London Borough of Southwark)

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N 51.49581 ° E -0.09924 °
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Metro Central Heights

Newington Causeway 119
SE1 6FJ London, Elephant and Castle (London Borough of Southwark)
England, United Kingdom
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The Coronet
The Coronet

The Coronet Theatre was a large live music and night-club venue with a 2,600 capacity located at 28 New Kent Road in Elephant and Castle, London, England. The historic venue operated as an entertainment venue from 1879 until 2018 and to up to its closure managed to retain all of its art deco features. The site was first occupied by the Theatre Royal, built in 1872 and destroyed by fire only six years later. Renovations were initiated by Jethro Thomas Robinson after the fire, and completed by Frank Matcham, to what became the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1879, where a very young Charlie Chaplin performed. The Theater was converted to an ABC cinema in 1928, a 3,100 seat cinema designed by Frank Matcham with a revolving steam driven organ. During the World War II, when London was being destroyed by The Blitz, the building stood strong and was often used as a shelter. In 1956, a showing of the film Blackboard Jungle gave rise to a riots by the Teddy Boy audience. After that, riots took place around the country wherever the film was shown. In 1966, with the onset of twinning, the Elephant and Castle Cinema was acquired by ABC Cinemas and split into a complex of three cinemas and also a luxury lounge was introduced. The first film to be exhibited was Bonnie and Clyde in 1966. After several more name changes, it became the Coronet Cinema in 1981. The Coronet Cinema closed down in 1999, leaving the Elephant and Castle area with no cinemas. In 2002, a theatre producer and entrepreneur, Dominic Madden bought The Coronet Theatre as a derelict building and subsequently brought the venue back to its celebrated and original Art-Deco, removing the cinema complex, reintroducing the upper-gallery design and removing the rake floor. Following a reputed £3m refurbishment, The Coronet Theatre was launched in April 2003 as a multi-media nightclub but in June 2003 the incumbent nightclub management company, Heaven (nightclub) were replaced by a team led by Simon Parkes, the founder of Brixton Academy as Managing Director. The venue has hosted many popular live music artists including Justin Timberlake, Wolfmother, Blur, Oasis, Primal Scream, The Libertines, Macy Gray, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Grinderman, The Decemberists, Hundred Reasons, Kelis, Alicia Keys, Caribou, Tame Impala, Placebo, Ty Segall, and The Fall among many more live gigs and parties. The venue continued to operate nightclub and live music events up to its closure. The theatre last operated to 1 January 2018. After some delays, demolition of the building started in early 2021.

Elephant and Castle
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The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The name is derived from a local coaching inn. In the first half of the 20th century, because of its vitality, the area was known as "the Piccadilly of South London". In more recent years is now viewed as a part of central London given its location in Zone 1 on the London Underground. "The Elephant", as locally abbreviated, consists of major traffic junctions connected by a short road called Elephant and Castle, the nascent part of the A3. Traffic runs to and from Kent along the A2 (New Kent Road and Old Kent Road), much of the south of England on the A3, to the West End via St George's Road, and to the City of London via London Road and Newington Causeway at the northern junction. Newington Butts and Walworth Road adjoin the southern junction. The whole junction forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone. The subterranean River Neckinger, which originates from the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park area, flows east directly under the area towards St Saviour's Dock where it enters the Thames. The area was significantly remodelled in the 1960s as part of the post-war reconstruction. A new and major wave of redevelopment was initiated in the late 2000s with the demolition of the brutalist Heygate Estate. The various phases of the project are due to last until the late 2020s. The demolition of the shopping centre and The Coronet started in early 2021. The Elephant has two linked London Underground stations, on the Northern and Bakerloo lines, and a National Rail station served by limited Southeastern services and Thameslink suburban loop line services to Mitcham, Sutton and Wimbledon, and services to Kentish Town and St.Albans to Orpington or Sevenoaks via Catford.