Express tour

Just before Christmas, I got to peek inside the hulking great Art Deco office that was built for the Daily Express on Fleet Street in 1932.

Grade II listed, the building’s exterior is made up of black vitrolite (opaque glass) and clear glass, but inside, the lobby is all silver and gilt, plaster reliefs and panelwork, snakes as handrails and a floor that looks like something out of Twin Peaks. It feels like a luxury cruise ship from the 1920’s only far glitzier.

The design was supposedly influenced by classic New York skyscrapers – presumably The Empire States building etc – and both the facade and lobby were restored in 2000 after the newspaper had left the building. When you walk past it today, the interior is hidden behind huge sheer curtains so that bods like me don’t press their camera phones up to the glass. But, drumroll….now I’m going to lift the curtain!

Express building Architecture tour My Friend's House

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