Oxo Tower

The Oxo Tower is a building with a prominent tower on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The building has mixed use as Oxo Tower Wharf containing a set of design, arts and crafts shops on the ground and first floors with two galleries, Bargehouse and gallery@oxo. The OXO Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie is on the eighth floor, which is the roof-top level with fine and casual dining. In addition to this, situated on the eighth floor is a viewing gallery open to the public. The third to seventh floors contain 78 flats owned by Redwood Housing (1995). Much of the second floor can be hired out for events and weddings.

Oxo Tower Wharf is in the east of London's South Bank cultural area in the London Borough of Southwark. A continuous riverside walkway passes in front of the building, and links it with other riverside attractions such as the Festival Hall, the National Theatre, the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre.

The building is flanked to the west by Bernie Spain Gardens and Gabriel's Wharf, and to the east by Sea Containers House. When viewing the tower, there are only a few places in which it can be seen. These include the Observation Point, the adjacent riverside walkway, the green at the back of the tower, and the two piers stood in front of the tower.

The building was originally constructed as a power station to supply electricity to the Royal Mail post office, built towards the end of the 19th century (official date unknown). It was subsequently acquired by the Liebig Extract of Meat Company in the 1920s (official date unknown) manufacturers of Oxo beef stock cubes, for conversion into a cold store.

The building was largely rebuilt to an Art Deco design by company architect Albert Moore between 1928 and 1929. Much of the original power station was demolished, but the river facing facade was retained and extended. Liebig wanted to include a tower featuring illuminated signs advertising the name of their product. When permission for the advertisements was refused, the tower was built with four sets of three vertically-aligned windows, each of which "coincidentally" happened to be in the shapes of a circle, a cross and a circle. This was significant because Skyline advertising at the time was banned along Southbank. Despite these windows being the building’s architectural focal point, the tower is not accessible by the general public. Granted access is only given to those who maintain the tower, such as electricians.

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