Minerva House

Minerva House was built between 1979 and 1983 as the London office of Grindlays Bank with Twigg, Brown & Partners as architects.^[1] The yellow brick building features narrow windows between closely paired piers.^[1] It sits on the south bank of the River Thames just west of London Bridge.

Cartographic sources show that the site has previously housed:

• The Close of the nearby Southwark Cathedral since the 14th century^[2]
• Hibernia Wharf since at least 1888^[2][3]
• New Hibernia Wharf since at least 1947^[4]

Minerva House was sold for around £42 million in 2005^[5] and for £60 million in 2012.^[6]

Following the acquisition of Grindlays by Standard Chartered Bank in 2000, the building was refurbished during 2006^[7] and is had mixed use with 103,686 square feet (9,632.7 m²) of office space over six floors and thirty four flats^[8] in 11,900 square feet (1,110 m²) of residential space.^[6] In 2022 works redevelopment of the building began that include partial demolition works with the retention of the existing structural frame and partial facade replacement, a 3-storey extension of the existing building to create a building up to 9 storeys, incorporating additional office floorspace, new external roof terraces and new public realm landscaping at ground level.^[9]

The current owners are Great Portland Estates^[6]. Previous tenants prior to the redevelopment works included Winckworth Sherwood LLP, TUI,^[6] Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and Wandle Housing Association Ltd.