Drury Lane – Not only a Theatre

London’s Drury Lane is rightly famous for its excellent theatre. But less well known is a fine example of early 1970’s Brutalist architecture. Number 10 Drury Lane was originally built as offices, designed by Geoffrey Spyer & Co in 1972.

It was later repurposed as a hotel and in 2009 planning permission was granted for a 250 bed extension, costing £10 million, to create a 450 bed hotel. JWA Architects took on the design. Although more modern it was carried out to compliment the existing Brutalist structure. The extension was higher than the original to, apparently, make it more viable as a hotel. In the times of biodiversity, and in the absence of green space it was also designed to have a ‘brown roof, with bird boxes to provide habitat. The original office block had the typical separate tower which usually housed stairs, lifts, rubbish chutes etc, keeping them separate from the main building. Out of Sight out of mind!

Despite the extension and refurbishment these were, thankfully, retained. The interior however was completely stripped out so none of the original Brutalist features remain.

The question is how long does it have left? Travelodge put it up for sale in 2023 but as yet there have been no takers. What is worrying, for fans of the architecture, is that the building isn’t listed so if the council chooses developers could knock it down and yet another block of boxlike apartments will appear in its place. Given conversions already made it’ll probably be easier for developers to raze it to the ground.