The former exhibition block of Watson House, now the Piper Building, and the attached relief panels by John Piper

Summary

Former exhibition block of the headquarters of North Thames Gas Board and the research laboratories of the Gas Council (1957-1959), now entrance foyer and commercial unit within a mixed residential and commercial conversion.

29 relief panels (1961-1962) by the artist John Piper line the three exposed elevations of the building at the first floor.

Reasons for Designation

The 29 relief panels (1961-1962) by John Piper and the former exhibition block of the Piper Building (1957-1959) to which they are attached are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* John Piper’s relief panels are a singular example of a permanent outdoor artwork in the artist’s large and diverse oeuvre;

* in their confident handling of shape, colour and texture the panels are characteristic of Piper’s late abstract period; the medium transposes the layered character of his pre-war collage technique, and the hand-made appearance of paper cut-outs, to an architectural scale;

* working in collaboration with Gillespie and Manzaroli Associates, the panels are a translation of Piper's art into a new medium by skilled craftspeople, an approach central to his applied art practise;

* the first in a small series of works in fibreglass, the panels exemplify Piper's continual experimentation with new artistic media;

* the former exhibition block provides an effective architectural setting for the site-specific panels; the height, spacing and position of the panels, set against the building’s white rendered elevations, is integral to the way in which the work is encountered and perceived.

Historic interest:

* as a sizeable example of a bespoke architectural relief, a form of public artwork popularised in the post-war period and here the work of a major figure in C20 British art.

History

THE FORMER EXHIBITION BLOCK AT THE PIPER BUILDING
What now houses the main entrance to the Piper Building was formerly the exhibition block of Watson House. Watson House was built in 1959-1961 to accommodate the workshops, training facilities and administrative offices of the North Thames Gas Board and the research laboratories of the Gas Council. The building was formally opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in November 1963.

Much of the client’s extensive accommodation requirements were met by a six-storey slab on a T-plan. Projecting from the north/south wing of this slab was the exhibition block, a two-storey range with an exhibition room and conference rooms over pilotis, and an entrance hall and industrial showroom beneath. The three external walls were decorated with a series of 29 relief panels by the artist John Piper (1903-92).

The gas industry was privatised in 1986 and the decision was taken to relocate the functions and staff of Watson House to Loughborough. The building was closed in November 1993 and in August 1995 planning permission was granted for its conversion into 77 flats and 20 office units. The resulting redevelopment of 1997-8 was named the Piper Building.

The first floor of the exhibition block provides a commercial unit, and at ground floor an entrance foyer and further commercial space.

THE PIPER RELIEF PANELS
The relief panels on the former exhibition block were designed by John Piper and made in 1961-1962 by Gillespie and Manzaroli Associates. Piper was approached for this commission in July 1961 by Michael Milne-Watson, the Chairman of the North Thames Gas Board, by which time the building was nearing completion. The proposal was originally for a series of mosaic panels, however this changed to panels made of polyester resin reinforced with glass fibre (also known as glass-reinforced plastic or GRP), commissioned from Gillespie and Manzaroli Associates. The change appears to have come about after Piper attended the ‘Barnstorm’ show that autumn, in which Gillespie and Manzaroli were exhibiting.

Piper was present when the panels were made at Gillespie’s studio at Coombe Hill in Surrey. He explained the centrality of ‘cut-outs’ to the composition and how these were echoed in the fabrication process: ‘In this case, the character of my original derived very largely from the scissor-cut shapes of my pieces of coloured paper. The character - that is, the hand-made look - of their finished work derives mostly from the knife-cut relief of the shapes, the knife cutting into the wax which made the moulds for these shapes. There is nothing mechanical about these shapes - they are felt, and they look as if they have been enjoyed, or anyway experienced, in the making.’ (Spalding, 2009, p 378)

John Piper (1903-1992) is widely recognised as a major figure in C20 British art. The mainstay of his oeuvre was landscape painting, however he experimented with different media, materials and techniques throughout his working life. This involved a process of translation from one medium to another through a collaboration with skilled craftspeople and resulted in what Piper described as ‘delegated art’ (Spalding, 2009, p 378). Best known is his collaboration with stained-glass artist, Patrick Reyntiens (1925-2021) from 1954, but Piper also created tapestries, book illustrations, screenprints, fabrics, mosaics, ceramics and designs for the stage. Many of these collaborative works came about as a result of projects for the public realm, but the relief panels at the Piper Building are Piper's only permanent external public artwork.

The architectural setting and character of some commissions prompted a return to abstraction and in particular Piper’s pre-war collage technique. The salient example is the panel of 198 rectangular lights for the Baptistery window at Coventry Cathedral (1951-62, architect Sir Basil Spence, listed Grade I) commissioned in November 1957 and consecrated in 1962. The Watson House reliefs belong to this late abstract manner which is echoed by contemporaneous studies of rocks on the beach in Brittany and paintings such as Poelfoen (1960-1) and Garn Fawr (1962), in which abstract shapes float on a stippled background.

David Gillespie (1936-1998) and Tony Manzaroli (b 1937) were recent graduates of the Royal College of Art (RCA). Gillespie studied graphic design and Manzaroli, furniture design. On graduating they established a short-lived partnership to develop experimental materials for use in interiors and exhibition design. Their work was included in two exhibitions of 1961: the British Pavilion at ‘Expo 61’, the Turin international labour exhibition and, in October of that year, ‘Barnstorm’, a group exhibition at New Malden, Surrey, featuring work in experimental media by Gillespie, Manzaroli, Ann Gillespie (née Reason) and David Whitaker. Gillespie later studied television and film design and became an ITV set designer before establishing David Gillespie Associates with his wife Ann. The firm carried out bespoke commissions (including further projects for Piper) while developing new interior products in materials such as glass-reinforced plastic and ‘Zerodec’, a glass reinforced gypsum composite.

Details

Former exhibition block of the headquarters of North Thames Gas Board and the research laboratories of the Gas Council, now entrance foyer and commercial units within a mixed residential and commercial conversion. Built 1957-1959 to designs by E R Collister & Associates. Converted 1997-8 by Nelsonville Ltd with architects, Lifschutz Davidson.

29 relief panels (1961-1962) by the artist John Piper and made by Gillespie and Manzaroli Associates line the three exposed elevations of the building at first floor.

MATERIALS: concrete frame with rendered elevations. Glazed screens are held in steel frames.

PLAN: square in plan, flat-roofed two-storey block on piloti with an external stair to the south.

EXTERIOR: the first floor is supported on piloti with an undercroft beneath. The ground floor is enclosed by glazed screen walls, containing the main entrance to the building. A canopy projects from the building’s entrance to the gated pedestrian access to the site. The canopy was added as part of the conversion. The first floor is blind, with 29 relief panels arranged in a band around the three exposed faces of the block.

INTERIOR: Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the interior of the building is not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority to determine.

THE PIPER RELIEF PANELS

MATERIALS: polyester resin reinforced with glass fibre (also known as glass-reinforced plastic or GRP).

ARRANGEMENT: 29 rectangular coloured relief panels fixed to the three external walls of the former exhibition block at first-floor level. On the south elevation there are six full-size panels and two smaller panels near the fire-escape stair. The east elevation has eight full-size panels flanked by a pair of narrow panels, with L-shaped panels clasping the corners. The north elevation has six full-size panels and three narrower panels towards the junction with the adjoining six-storey block. The full-size panels measure approximately 365cm (12ft) by 275cm (9ft).

DESCRIPTION: the panels use abstract imagery and comprise a series of spiral, ovoid and rectangular motifs in shallow relief upon a pale background of speckles and horizontal striations. To the sides of the exhibition block the panels have an almost monochrome palette which becomes tonally richer towards the front and centre. The predominant colours are ochres, oranges, browns and black against a background of mid-and light blues and greys.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England, London 3: North West (2002), p. 244
The Piper Building in Architects' Journal, ,Vol. 208, (24 September 1998), p. 43
Offices and laboratories, Fulham in Architectural Review, ,Vol. 132, (August 1962), p. 92
Spalding, F, John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art (2009),
Webb, B, Skipwith, P, John Piper (2013),
Fraser Jenkins, D, John Piper: Tate Gallery 1983 (1983),
Fraser Jenkins, D, John Piper: Tate Gallery 1983 (1983),

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