Big House on the Prairie
For many centuries Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea were on the ‘wrong side’ of the river Thames. Today, of course, Nine Elms is home to the American Embassy and Battersea to massive, upmarket residential development areas. What went right?
If you were in the entertainment business, south bank Southwark and Lambeth had long been significant locations, beyond the restrictions and regulations of the City of London on the north bank of the Thames. Shakespeare’s globe theatre came to Southwark in 1599. Vauxhall had its moments in the sun in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the location for one of London’s largest and most spectacular Pleasure Gardens. The first such Garden to open (in 1729), Vauxhall finally closed its gates in 1859. “Simultaneously an art gallery, a restaurant, a brothel, a concert hall and a park, the pleasure garden was the place where Londoners confronted their very best, and very worst, selves.” https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/vauxhall-pleasure-gardens
Nine Elms had a shakier start – as marshland – and effective drainage was not established until the Heathwall river was tamed in the 15th century. Despite the subsequent construction of local roads, significant development seems to have been delayed until the Regent (later Vauxhall) Bridge was constructed in 1816, followed by the big one - the construction of the London and South Western Railway in the 1830s. London’s first - yes, really, first - railway terminus was opened at Nine Elms in 1838. For the next 150 years, the area from Vauxhall to Battersea would be dominated by railways, water works, gas works, industrial works and, finally, from 1929 onwards, the building and operation of Battersea Power Stations A and B.
Ordnance Survey of 1893/94 'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland' https://maps.nls.uk/index.html
The regeneration of the Nine Elms area has created, “the largest regeneration zone in central London” and will include “new public squares, parks and footpaths created alongside major improvements to local infrastructure” https://nineelmslondon.com/transformation/.
An extension to the Underground’s Northern Line has also been constructed and two new stations opened last month, namely Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station. This event finally triggered a visit from Team Terroir.
Designed by American architects Kieran Timberlake, the embassy brief required the establishment of “a new paradigm in embassy design by representing the ideals of the American government—giving priority to transparency, openness, and equality” (https://kierantimberlake.com/page/embassy-of-the-united-states-of-america) while also creating a core element in the regeneration of Nine Elms.
Approaching the site through the ever increasing canyons of high rise residential development, the first glimpse of the embassy is startling and other worldly.
Three sides of the building are encased in a brise soleil, described as a “crystal-like ethylene-tetrafluroethylene (ETFE) scrim… Its pattern visually fragments the façade while it intercepts unwanted solar gain. The design of this scrim works vertically, horizontally and diagonally to eliminate directionality from the building’s massing.” https://uk.usembassy.gov/new-embassy-design-concept/
Terroir suggests that this last sentence would not win an award for crystal clear English-English or even American-English. One of us also admits to a first impression of a large number of mosquito nets hung out to dry. But there is no escaping the fact that the building is memorable, characterful and entirely unlike anything which has been, or is about to be, built around it. Even the massive gates which accommodate such workaday activities as deliveries and maintenance provide an airy camouflage to the larger access points. Sadly, the machine gun toting police officers who guard all entrances are a grim reminder of the real world; they look totally out of place.
The pediment of the building is encased in gardens and here the designers have created a landscape which is simultaneously legible, restful, encouraging, stimulating, and animated by people, wind and water. The key elements aim to create a reminder of the American prairies and Nine Elms’ wetland origins. Species selection, however, is in no way restricted to the North American prairies or southern English marsh and wetlands. Euphorbias and echinops nestle up to the more American rudbeckias, but are none the worse for that. The extensive use of swamp or bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) in and around the wetlands looks very impressive but this Louisiana native does raise a smile when viewed in the historic context of a Thames south bank location.
A light canopy of trees adds height, variety and contrast to the landscape. Autumn foliage will become Fall colour thanks to a collection of non British oaks and maples, those swamp cypresses plus the occasional gingko to add a Chinese dimension to the planting and colour palette.
Terroir is not the first to consider that the main water body looks suspiciously like a moat, and indeed the open grassland and mounding around the play area, plus the elevation of the building above the gardens, could be construed as a Norman Castle on its motte and within its bailey. Are those mosquito nets actually cunningly disguised arrow slits?
Our morning in the Embassy Garden was a pleasure. Security was obviously an issue but there were some very subtle touches too. We leave you with a boundary hedge, gently disguising a ram raid ring of steel.