Welwyn Garden City Heritage Trust continues its look back at WGC's past. This week it's the arrival of Roche in the second garden city.
Have you visited Basel in Switzerland? It is one of the top European cities, and has two things in common with Welwyn Garden.
Firstly, its historic centre is separated from its business area; Basel by the Rhine, Welwyn Garden City by the East Coast main line railway.
Secondly, both have notable buildings by the healthcare company Roche in their business zones. Roche’s headquarters in Basel is a pair of massive pyramidal towers by Herzog & de Meuron.
Its Welwyn Garden site, in Shire Park, houses around 2,000 researchers in a beautiful modern building by BDP (Building Design Partnership) whose brief was to provide 'Quality without Ostentation' - very Swiss.
Roche arrived in Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, in 1937, having outgrown an office in Tower Hill.
In 1934 they were the first company to mass produce synthetic vitamin C, and its success meant they needed much more space.
They commissioned a leading Swiss architect, Otto Salvisberg, to design an off-white modernist HQ and laboratory, complementing the adjacent Shredded Wheat factory.
It was made of reinforced concrete with a steel frame and completed in 1940.
In 1939 The Architect’s Journal had designated it ‘Building of the Year‘.
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Our pictures show the stylish design incorporating a magnificent spiral staircase, and a grand boardroom.
This had a specially designed mural showing the Roche sites in England, by a Czech artist Walter Trier, a Jewish emigré.
The building was listed Grade II in 1980.
After the war, Roche added more buildings, initially around and matching the original one. In 1977 they ran out of space and added a large Brutalist office block on the opposite side of Broadwater Road.
All these new buildings were designed by James Cubitt and Partners, leading architects of their time.
In 2005, the company pulled all its staff into the new building in Shire Park and sold off previous sites.
The old HQ was bought by Taylor Wimpey.
They were eventually granted permission to remove the later buildings, replacing them with blocks of flats, but were not allowed to convert the listed HQ.
The council commendably wanted this preserved, either by using it still as offices or by the community in order to conserve original features such as the board room.
Despite efforts to market it as offices there were no takers, and the building stood empty for ten years, gradually decaying and suffering vandalism.
Eventually in 2016 another application was submitted for change of use and conversion to 34 high quality apartments.
This was supported by ourselves – the Heritage Trust – as well as the Welwyn Garden Society and the Twentieth Century Society.
Eventually the council caved in, despite misgivings that there was no affordable housing included.
In 2018, Oakbridge Homes bought the site and began converting it.
It was a challenge: the walls and floors throughout were covered in graffiti, windows had been smashed and frames removed for scrap, as was the bronze balustrade to the main staircase.
Just as the units were ready for sale, Covid-19 put a stop to viewings. Happily their efforts were ultimately rewarded and all the units sold.
It is now called Griffin Place, as a tribute to the city of Basel, which has a griffin as its heraldic symbol.
This is a success story for lovers of our heritage; a landmark building was saved from demolition by being listed and has been repurposed to great effect.
One puzzle remains: while the building was empty the board room mural vanished.
If you can help retrieve it you would be doing the town and Roche a great service.
Also, we do not have a colour picture of this mural – can you help?
Email Geoffrey Hollis at g.hollis@welwyngarden-heritage.org.
- Next time – a Roche building which is meeting a brutal end.
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