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Skylon (tower)
Encyclopedia
Tensegrity
Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression, is a structural principle based on the use of isolated components in compression inside a net of continuous tension, in such a way that the compressed members do not touch each other and the prestressed tensioned members delineate the...
structure located by the Thames in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, that apparently floated above the ground, built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
.
A popular joke of the period was that, like the British economy of 1951, "It had no visible means of support".
Construction
The Skylon was the “Vertical Feature” that was an abiding symbol of the Festival of Britain. It was designed by Hidalgo MoyaHidalgo Moya
John Hidalgo Moya , sometimes known as Jacko Moya, was a famous American-born architect who worked largely in England. Moya was a native of California where he was born to an English mother and Mexican father but lived in England since he was an infant. He formed the architectural practice Powell &...
, Philip Powell
Philip Powell (architect)
Sir Arnold Joseph Philip Powell , usually known as Philip Powell, was a ground-breaking English post-war architect.He was educated at Epsom College and then the Architectural Association....
and Felix Samuely
Felix Samuely
Felix James Samuely was a Structural engineer.Born in Vienna, he immigrated to Britain in 1933. Worked with Erich Mendelsohn on the De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea , the British Pavilion for the Brussels World’s Fair and on various parts of the Festival of Britain. Published MARS plan for...
, and fabricated by Painter Brothers
Painter Brothers
Painter Brothers is a major British fabricator of structural steelwork and one of the leading producers of bolted lattice steelwork in the world.-History:Painter Brothers was founded at Hereford, England in 1920 and incorporated in 1929....
of Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, on London's South Bank
South Bank
South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...
between Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side, in London, England....
and Hungerford Bridge
Hungerford Bridge
The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is a steel truss railway bridge—sometimes known as the Charing Cross Bridge—flanked by two more recent, cable-stayed, pedestrian bridges that share the railway bridge's...
. The Skylon consisted of a steel latticework
Latticework
Latticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...
frame, pointed at both ends and supported on cables slung between three steel beams. The partially constructed Skylon was rigged vertically, then grew taller in situ. The architects' design was made structurally feasible by the engineer Felix Samuely who, at the time, was a lecturer at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury. The base was nearly 15 metres (50 feet) from the ground, with the top nearly 90 metres (300 feet) high. The frame was clad in aluminium louvres lit from within at night. Both the name and form of the Skylon perhaps referred back to the Trylon feature of the 1939 World's Fair. Mrs A G S Fidler, wife of the chief architect of the Crawley Development Corporation, suggested the name and said she derived it from skyhook
Skyhook
Skyhook or sky hook may refer to:- Technology :* Skyhook , explanation of design complexity in the universe that does not build on lower, simpler layers* Skyhook , "hook" used to lift an object on a long cable hanging from the sky...
and nylon
Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...
.
A few days before the King and Queen visited the exhibition in May 1951, Skylon was climbed at midnight by student Philip Gurdon from Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
who attached a University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
Air Squadron
University Air Squadron
University Air Squadrons are training units of the Royal Air Force which primarily provide basic flying training, force development and adventurous training to undergraduate students at British universities...
scarf near the top. A workman was sent up a few days later to collect it.
Questions were asked in Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
regarding the danger to visitors from lightning-strikes to the Skylon, and the papers reported that it was duly roped off at one point, in anticipation of a forecast thunderstorm.
Demolition
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, who saw it a symbol of the preceding Labour Government, when the rest of the exhibition was dismantled. According to Jude Kelly
Jude Kelly
Judith Pamela Kelly OBE is a theatre director and producer from Liverpool, England.Kelly founded Solent People's Theatre, a touring company in 1976, and was artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre from 1980 to 1985. In 1986, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, it was thrown into the River Lea in east London, but several other theories surround its fate: that it was dumped in the Thames, buried under Jubilee Gardens, cut into pieces and turned into ashtrays, or even sold for scrap. The base is preserved in the Museum of London and the only other parts known to have survived are the wind cups, which are owned by a private collector. Plans are afoot to send divers to search for Skylon in the River Lea in July 2011.
In response to a public statement by Jude Kelly about the destiny of the Skylon, an investigation was launched by the Front Row
Front Row
Front Row is a media center software for Apple's Macintosh computers and Apple TV for navigating and viewing video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disc, or the Internet through a 10-foot user interface . The software relies on iTunes and iPhoto and is controlled by an Apple...
programme on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. The result was broadcast on 8 March 2011, revealing that the Skylon and the roof of the Dome of Discovery were sold for scrap to George Cohen and Sons, scrap metal dealers of Wood Lane, Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
, and dismantled at their works in Bidder street, Canning Town
Canning Town
Canning Town is an area of east London, England. It is part of the London Borough of Newham and is situated in the area of the former London docks on the north side of the River Thames. It is the location of Rathbone Market...
, on the banks of the River Lea. Some of the metal fragments were then turned into a series of commemorative paper-knives and artefacts. The inscriptions on the paper-knife read "600". George Cohen and Sons changed its name to 'The 600 Group' when it moved its head-office to 600 Commercial road, Tower Hamlets, the Wood lane site having been sold to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. and "Made from the aluminium alloy roof sheets which covered the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain, South Bank. The Dome, Skylon and 10 other buildings on the site, were dismantled by George Cohen and Sons and Company LTD during 6 months of 1952."
The former location of the Skylon is the riverside promenade between the London Eye
London Eye
The London Eye is a tall giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames, in London, England.It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually...
and Hungerford Bridge
Hungerford Bridge
The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is a steel truss railway bridge—sometimes known as the Charing Cross Bridge—flanked by two more recent, cable-stayed, pedestrian bridges that share the railway bridge's...
, alongside the Jubilee Gardens (the former site of the Dome of Discovery
Dome of Discovery
The Dome of Discovery was a temporary exhibition building designed by architect Ralph Tubbs for the Festival of Britain celebrations which took place on London's South Bank in 1951. The consulting engineers were Freeman Fox and Partners, in particular Oleg Kerensky The Dome of Discovery was a...
). A new connection to the original Skylon was formed in May 2007 when D&D London (formerly Conran Restaurants) opened a new restaurant named Skylon on the third floor of the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
, within metres of the location of the original.
External links
- Search for Skylon in HansardHansardHansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
archive - Skylon spire may return to London skyline (Guardian)
- The Skylon
- Museum of London Colour photo of the Skylon