OXO Tower
The OXO Tower is one of London's most recognisable riverside landmarks, rising above the South Bank of the Thames with an unmistakable Art Deco silhouette. Named after the famous beef stock cube brand, the tower's distinctive windows spell out the letters O-X-O in a vertical sequence, a clever piece of early twentieth-century guerrilla advertising that has since become an icon of the London skyline. Today it serves as a mixed-use building housing design studios, restaurants, a brasserie and bar at its summit, and a public viewing gallery offering some of the finest panoramic views of central London, including direct sightlines across to St Paul's Cathedral and the City.
The building's history stretches back to 1928, when it was constructed for the Liebig Extract of Meat Company, manufacturers of OXO stock cubes, on the site of a former power station that had supplied electricity to the Post Office. The company approached the London County Council seeking permission to advertise their brand on the tower with illuminated signs, but advertising on the Thames riverfront was prohibited. Undeterred, the architect Albert Moore designed the windows in the shapes of the letters O, X, and O, cleverly embedding the brand name into the building's very fabric under the guise of architectural ornamentation. The ruse worked, and the illuminated OXO lettering has glowed above the river ever since, making it one of the earliest and most enduring examples of stealth corporate branding in architectural history.
For much of the mid-twentieth century the building fell into a state of disrepair, and by the 1970s and 1980s it faced potential demolition. A sustained campaign by local residents and heritage groups helped secure its future, and a major regeneration project was undertaken by the Coin Street Community Builders, a social enterprise that had acquired the surrounding Coin Street site following a landmark planning battle. The refurbishment, completed in the 1990s, transformed the tower into a hub for designer-makers and creative businesses, with the upper floors given over to Harvey Nichols' restaurant — later rebranded the OXO Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie — which opened in 1996. The project became a celebrated model of community-led urban regeneration.
In person the tower is a satisfying structure to look at and to be inside. The building's lower floors open into a long arcade of studios and shops where independent designers sell jewellery, textiles, ceramics and furniture, and browsing these compact spaces has a pleasantly intimate, market-hall quality to it. The upper floors, reached by a lift, open out dramatically: the restaurant and brasserie are cantilevered over the river, and their floor-to-ceiling glass walls give the impression of floating above the Thames. The public viewing gallery on the eighth floor is free of charge and genuinely spectacular, offering a completely unobstructed 180-degree panorama that takes in the Embankment, the bridges, Tate Modern, Bankside and the towers of the City beyond.
The surrounding area is the vibrant cultural heart of London's South Bank. The building sits between Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge along the Queen's Walk riverside promenade, and neighbours include the National Theatre, the BFI Southbank, the Tate Modern gallery and Shakespeare's Globe theatre a short walk to the east. Gabriel's Wharf, immediately adjacent to the OXO Tower, is a cluster of small independent food and retail units set around a colourful courtyard that retains a pleasantly bohemian atmosphere. The whole stretch of riverside from Waterloo to London Bridge is one of the great urban walking routes in Europe, and the OXO Tower sits near its western end.
Getting to the OXO Tower is straightforward. The nearest Underground station is Blackfriars on the Circle and District lines, a short walk across Blackfriars Bridge or along the embankment. Waterloo station, served by numerous overground and Underground lines, is also within comfortable walking distance. The South Bank is also well served by numerous bus routes along the Embankment and Waterloo Road. Cycling infrastructure is good along the riverside and there are Santander Cycle hire docking stations nearby. The building is open during business hours for shopping and gallery visits, and the restaurant and brasserie operate throughout lunch and dinner service, though reservations are strongly advised for the restaurant given its popularity and limited seating.
The free public viewing gallery on the eighth floor is perhaps the building's best-kept secret among tourists, who often flock instead to the paid attractions like the Shard or the London Eye for their river views. The OXO Tower's vantage point is less vertiginous but arguably more atmospheric, placing you at just the right height to appreciate the sweep of the river and the contrast between the historic dome of St Paul's and the glass towers of the modern City. On a clear evening, particularly in the golden hour before sunset, the view across the Thames from the gallery is genuinely breathtaking, and it costs nothing to stand there and take it in. The neon OXO lettering, now restored to its full brilliance, is also best appreciated from Waterloo Bridge at dusk, when it glows a warm amber above the darkening river — a piece of hundred-year-old advertising that has transcended its origins to become part of the soul of London.