The Museum of London was built on a busy roundabout on the edge of the Barbican site in the City of London to document the history of the city. The office tower, though not part of the Museum of London, rises above part of the museum site and was included in the architects’ commission.

The Museum of London is the most retiring public building in London. Were it not for the words ‘Museum of London’ printed in stubby capitals on its forehead you would not know it was there. Its site is not a site in the ordinary architect’s meaning of the word, but a few oddly shaped pieces of Space Left Over After Planning. Behind, loom the majestic towers and terraces of the Barbican; in what should have been the heart of the site lurks the relict of Ironmongers Hall; above, perched up on pilotis rises the last of the tower office blocks which line ‘Route ll’-and, as though to compound the misery, the site is caught in the mesh of the City’s abortive traffic segregation scheme.

AR July 1977

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