ENGLISH HERITAGE has accepted the issue of a “certificate of immunity” from listing of its own headquarters in London’s Savile Row. The building, Fortress House, is a notable landmark designed by a gold medallist of RIBA, William Curtis Green, who has long been recognised as a leading talent.

Clearly it stands on a valuable piece of real estate, and English Heritage has only remained here thanks to the determined stand of its former chairman, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, in reversing ill-judged proposals to move the organisation away from the centre of power to Nottingham. Now the Department of Culture is surrendering the lease to the owners, Legal & General.

The issue of a certificate of immunity from listing can only be justified in cases where a building clearly has no architectural interest of any kind. In this case, however, English Heritage acknowledges the building has architectural interest, but argues this is not sufficient to make it “special” and therefore worthy of listing.

Criteria for listing have always changed and expanded with the passing years. The only way Fortress House could be deemed to be without architectural interest is to adopt an old-fashioned ideological Modernist stance and argue that no postwar building can be of artistic merit unless it is a ground-breaking piece of Modernism with a capital M.

English Heritage cites Nikolaus Pevsner (a great apostle of Modernism) in his volume on Westminster as being “neutral” on the building, yet Simon Bradley, in the introduction to his scrupulously revised and expanded new edition of the Pevsner volume, argues that Fortress House is the most interesting of a group of noteworthy public buildings constructed after the Second World War.

Under the Attlee Government severe restrictions on construction work were in force and Fortress House is a remarkable demonstration of what a great architectural practice could achieve in the most difficult circumstances.

The interest of the Curtis Green design is that it continues 1930s classicism as if war had never intervened. This is the sophisticated, stripped-down classicism pioneered by Lutyens and continued by other top talents such as Charles Holden and Vincent Harris.

Fortress House has the added appeal of forming part of a real piece of Poirot townscape with the sleek 1939 police station by the leading architects Burnet, Tait & Lorne just across the road and a clever cubist block of 1937-38 at No. 25 by Gordon Jeeves. Fortress House, designed in 1949 and completed a year later, is an example of the set-back style evolved in New York to avoid blocking the light of neighbouring buildings. The advancing wings have attractive roof terraces on one of which the canteen spills out in summer. It is a pity that English Heritage has never promoted this asset in a more public way, following the example of RIBA at its stylish Deco headquarters in Portland Place.

The best feature of the building remains the still blemishless Portland stone cladding. It looks plain, but study it more closely and Curtis Green is playing the “Great Game”, as Lutyens called it, adapting the classical orders of architecture to the new scale of 20th-century building. It is most evident in his clever abstraction of the Doric frieze at the top, with plain discs and bands for the metopes, triglyphs and guttae invented by the Ancient Greeks.

English Heritage, recognising the potential conflict of interest, decided that its officers should not determine the issue and took the case to its advisory committee. On this sits Gavin Stamp, chairman of the 20th Century Society, and a leading authority on 20th-century classicism. Dr Stamp says: “Buildings of this period are much better than people expect. Fortress House should certainly stay.”

English Heritage, however, has argued that due to alterations there are no interior features of interest except the staircases. In fact, all the original fenestration survives. Numerous buildings in both the City and Westminster are listed for a single façade and Fortress House is a prominent, boldly modelled corner block.

Fortress House could make a first-class hotel in the centre of Mayfair (perhaps the new owners, Legal & General, will recognise that). It has the built-in carriage sweep which is essential for grand hotels (and which the Lanesborough had to contrive at the side).

Fortress House, imaginatively refurbished, could be a 21st-century Claridges, making glorious use of the roof terraces. It would be just as good an investment as an office block.

The author is the founder and president of SAVE Britain’s Heritage

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