This is the entrance to a building used by the V&A, the Science Museum and the British Museum for storage since 1979 but, maybe, not for much longer.
In the 2015 Autumn Statement George Osborne announced that he would provide £150 million to pay for a new storage facility and sell Blythe House but Brexit will probably delay this sensible plan.
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Fortunately it is Grade II Listed so will make a heck of a lot of flats. It was built around 1900 to house the Post Office Savings Bank which was growing like Topsy. There were some 4,000 staff employed within. Michael Collins joined as a clerk in 1906, when he was sixteen, and stayed for four years. He was at the same time studying Law at King’s College, London.
Although it is in a pretty central location few people see it tucked away between Brook Green and Olympia. I think it has a magnificent grandeur that could never be emulated today. Pevsner doesn’t share my enthusiasm, describing “its vast bulk not very convincingly dressed up with Wrenaissance trimmings (striped quoins, little turrets).”
On Kensington High Street the redevelopment of the cinema is still on hold.
It was built by Julian Leathart in 1926 who boasted that it has “all the paraphernalia of the Neo-Grec, coffers, entablature, frets and rondel”. When the developer gets round to completing the project The Kensington, as it will be called, will have in Minerva’s words:
New cinema facilities with state-of-the-art screens
A restored historic façade
125,000 sq ft net prime residential floor space
20 high-quality affordable homes
Modern offices and retail space
Retention of the existing London plane trees