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Five Kings House

Coordinates: 51°30′38″N 0°05′36″W / 51.51068°N 0.09333°W / 51.51068; -0.09333
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Five Kings House (formerly Thames House) is an office building in the City of London on the corner of Upper Thames Street and Queen Street Place, postcode EC4R 1QS. It is Grade II listed, Number:1358918.[1]

It was built in 1911 by Thomas Collcutt and Stanley Hamp for Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.[2][3]

The façade contains architectural sculptures by Richard Garbe. The figures representing Abundance over the central entrance are by Frank Lynn Jenkins.

Over the corner doorway is a canopy decorated with reclining figures, a skull on a pediment and a tablet with cherubs.[4]

Those over the grand entrance on the corner with Upper Thames Street represent Mercury and a female figure by George Duncan MacDougald (1880-1945).[5] Above this is a relief of Pegasus with two male figures and capitals with an owl and eagle.[4]

The central Queen Street doorway has crouched figures in a canopy and cherubs above.[4]

The former doorway to the south has figures in lead. The upper pediment has naked reclining figures with a child above. The winged keystone is decorated with fruit and eagles. The doorway has an Atlas keystone with an owl motif above. In the spandrels are reliefs of two naked female figures. A bronze sailing ship is in front of the oculus, supported on cartouche with the inscription "THAMES HOUSE".[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "69, UPPER THAMES STREET, 1-4, QUEEN STREET PLACE". Historic England.
  2. ^ "Thames House, Queen Street Place EC4". Ornamental Passions. 3 May 2011.
  3. ^ "Thames House, Queen Street Place, London, EC". The Victorian Web.
  4. ^ a b c d "Façade of Five Kings House, formerly Thames House (decoration)". Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. Retrieved 19 December 2018.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Five Kings House, Queen Street Place EC4". Ornamental Passions. 2 May 2011.

51°30′38″N 0°05′36″W / 51.51068°N 0.09333°W / 51.51068; -0.09333