Empress State Building facts for kids
The Empress State Building is a high rise building on the West Brompton/Earl's Court border in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (West London). Its full address is Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, West Brompton, London, SW6 1TR.
History
The building is named after the Empress Hall which formerly stood on the site, and in tribute to the Empire State Building. It was built between 1958 and 1961 on the site of the former Empress Hall and ice rink as a commercial building and was 100 metres (328 ft) tall with 28 floors, designed by Stone, Toms & Partners and was briefly the tallest commercial building in London until Millbank Tower was built in 1962. It was renovated in 2003 to a design by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Three floors and 17.3 metres (57 ft) were added to its height. 'Orbit' is the name given to the private revolving bar on the top floor which offers panoramic views of London.
This building was originally designed as a hotel but was first used by the Admiralty and GCHQ. The Directorate of Naval Shore Telecommunications (formerly the Naval Shore Telecommunications Authority) had their national headquarters in the building in the 1980s and 90s.
Metropolitan Police offices
The building is occupied by staff from the Metropolitan Police Service who refer to it as ESB. Among other things, the building is home to the assessment centre for prospective police officers. Some of the upper floors were occupied by staff from Transport for London until 2010. An annexe at the entrance to the site housed the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre until January 2020.
In March 2018 the London mayor's office agreed to buy the ESB estate for its MPS operations from Capco Plc, the developer of the adjacent Earl's Court regeneration scheme, for £250 million to house a new Counter Terrorism Operations Centre combining police and intelligence agencies' counter-terrorism units. Funding for that project was confirmed in November 2020 and the building is expected to re-open in that role by late 2025.
