Queens Tower @ Imperial College London

I used to work at Imperial College (and in fact I studied for my degree and PhD (in chemistry) there) and I used to see this beautiful building all the time. I was back there a couple of weeks ago for the 100th Centenary of Imperial College and the light was just nice on it so I took this - hope you like it.

It used to be part of a much bigger building (another picture here).

From the IC web pages.

The Queen's Tower is 287 feet tall, clad in Portland stone and topped by a copper covered dome. There are 324 steps from the ground to the base of the dome. Much of the route to the top is via narrow spiral staircases.

The tower is all that remains of the Imperial Institute, which was built to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. The Imperial Institute was established by Royal Charter for the purpose of carrying out research into the resources and raw materials of the Empire and to provide a meeting place for overseas visitors. It was administered by a Governing body with the then Prince of Wales as President.

The Imperial Institute was designed by T E Collcutt in the neo-renaissance style. It was 700 feet long with a central tower (the Queen's Tower) and smaller towers at the east and west ends. It contained a library, laboratories, conference rooms and exhibition galleries with gardens at the rear. Construction work took six years and the Institute was opened in 1893.

From the outset, the Institute was not a great success and in 1899, the University of London took over half of the building as administrative offices. This arrangement continued until 1936 when they moved to their present site in Bloomsbury.

Between 1902 and 1953, the Imperial Institute was the subject of various committees of enquiry and changes of administration. At various times the Board of Trade, the Colonial Office, the Department of Overseas Trade and Ministry of Education all ran the Institute. In 1953 the government announced the scheme for the expansion of Imperial College and by 1956 it was public knowledge that this would involve the demolition of the Imperial Institute.

There was considerable opposition to this from the Royal Fine Arts Commission and other bodies, as a result of which it was decided to retain the central tower.

Partial demolition began in 1957. In 1958, the Imperial Institute changed its name to the Commonwealth Institute and in 1962 it moved to its present buildings in Holland Park. The main demolition work could then begin and this continued until 1967.

Between 1966 and 1968, work was carried out to enable the central tower to stand on its own. This involved creating massive foundations and then substantially rebuilding the lower portion of the tower.

The Queen's Tower has since been in the custody of Imperial College and can be seen from various points around London; it is floodlit at night.

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / London / Knightsbridge (show map)

Taken on: September 14, 2007

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Camera: Fujifilm FinePix6900ZOOM, f/4.0, 37.5mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix6900ZOOM
Aperture:	f/4.0
Focal Length:	37.5mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows
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