The surprising second life of Colonel Seifert

There was a time, not so very long ago, when the skyline of London was dominated by the work of one architect: not Sir Christopher Wren, but Colonel Richard Seifert. But while Wren is universally admired, Seifert has been reviled. Architects hated his success; the public his uncompromising brutalist aesthetic. Yet now, more than two decades after his death, that appears to be changing.

Seifert – who did a spell in the Royal Engineers during the second world war and then insisted on being addressed by his military rank throughout his life – was often said to have had more of an impact on the capital than anyone bar the creator of St Paul’s. He was responsible for Centre Point in Tottenham Court Road; the NatWest Tower, or Tower 42, in the City (for more than a decade the tallest building in the UK after topping out in 1977); Space House in Kingsway; the Euston Station offices; and the ‘50p building’, No.