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102 Petty France

Office building in London, England

Field	Value
name	102 Petty France
image	HomeOffice QueenAnnesGate.jpg
caption	102 Petty France photographed from Broadway
former_names	50 Queen Anne's Gate
map_type	United Kingdom London Westminster#United Kingdom Greater London
map_caption	Location within the City of Westminster, London
coordinates
architect	Fitzroy Robinson & Partners
Sir Basil Spence
height	56 m
floor_area	51000 m2
floor_count	14

Sir Basil Spence

102 Petty France is an office block on Petty France in Westminster, London, England, overlooking St James's Park, which was designed by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners, with Sir Basil Spence, and completed in 1976. It was well known as the main location for the UK Home Office between 1978 and 2004, when it was known as 50 Queen Anne's Gate; it now houses departments including the Ministry of Justice, His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, Office for Budget Responsibility, and the Government Legal Department. The building is 56 m tall, with 14 floors providing 51000 m2 of office space.

History

The site was previously occupied by the 14-storey mansion block Queen Anne's Mansions, which was despised by some architectural commentators: Lord Reigate, speaking in the House of Lords in 1972 against the plans for the new building, used Nikolaus Pevsner's description "that irredeemable horror". However, the new building's architecture was not favourably received, either, Fodor's guide to London described it as "hulking", and Lord St John of Fawsley remarked that "Basil Spence's barracks in Hyde Park ruined that park; in fact, he has the distinction of having ruined two parks, because of his Home Office building, which towers above St James's Park." The building originated as a speculative office development, but the Home Office moved in owing to lack of space in its previous headquarters in Whitehall.

In spring 2005, the Home Office moved to a new purpose-built building at 2 Marsham Street designed by Terry Farrell. The Queen Anne's Gate building had a major refurbishment undertaken, having come into the ownership of Land Securities. It has been the home of the Ministry of Justice since 2008, with the building renamed 102 Petty France.

In May 2025, it was announced that the government would vacate 102 Petty France, as part of a wider plan to move thousands of civil servant jobs out of London. The timeframe for closing the office has yet to be published.

References

(4 July 1972). "Queen Anne's Mansions Site: Development Plans".
(14 February 2010). "The Great Offices of State: The Dark Department". BBC Four.
(28 June 2005). "Vauxhall Tower".
Nevett, Joshua. (14 May 2025). "Thousands of civil servant jobs to leave London". BBC News.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

buildings-and-structures-in-the-city-of-westminster national-government-buildings-in-london brutalist-architecture-in-london basil-spence-buildings 1976-establishments-in-england office-buildings-completed-in-1976 headquarters-in-the-united-kingdom

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