SIS Building

Vauxhall Cross
A view of SIS's Vauxhall Cross headquarters from Millbank in 2004
Alternative names	MI6 Building Legoland Ceaușescu Towers Babylon-on-Thames Vauxhall Trollop
General information
Architectural style	Postmodern
Address	85 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall, Lambeth
Town or city	London
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	Coordinates: 51°29′14″N 0°07′28″W / 51.487263°N 0.124323°W / 51.487263; -0.124323
Completed	April 1994
Inaugurated	July 1994
Client	Secret Intelligence Service
Owner	HM Government
Technical details
Floor area	252,497 square feet (23,457.7 m2)
Design and construction
Architect	Terry Farrell and Partners
Main contractor	John Laing plc

The SIS Building or MI6 Building at Vauxhall Cross houses the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, MI6). It is located at 85 Albert Embankment in Vauxhall, a south western part of central London, United Kingdom, on the bank of the River Thames beside Vauxhall Bridge. The building has been the headquarters of the SIS since 1994.

The SIS had previously been based at Century House, a 22-storey office block on Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth, near Waterloo station. The location of the headquarters was classified information, though the Daily Telegraph reported that it was 'London's worst-kept secret, known only to every taxi driver, tourist guide and KGB agent'. Century House was described as "irredeemably insecure" in a 1985 National Audit Office (NAO) report with security concerns raised in a survey; the building was made largely of glass, and had a petrol station at its base. Security concerns combined with the remaining short leasehold and cost of modernising the building were important factors in moving to a new headquarters.

The site on which the SIS building stands had been the location of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in the 19th century. Several industrial buildings were subsequently built on the site after the demolition of the pleasure gardens in the 1850s, including a glass factory, a vinegar works and a gin distillery. Archeological excavation of the site during building found the remains of seventeenth century glass kilns, as well as barge houses and an inn called The Vine. Evidence was also found for a river wall on the site.

In 1983 the site was bought by property developers Regalian Properties. A competition to develop the site was won by architect Terry Farrell, with an urban village as Farrell's original proposal. A scheme of office blocks was subsequently developed for the site, with a government agency as their occupier. The building had been sold for £130 million in 1989, with construction planned to take three years, built by John Laing. SIS ultimately became the occupiers of the building. Farrell's design for the SIS building was influenced by 1930s industrial modernist architecture such as Bankside and Battersea Power Stations and Mayan and Aztec religious temples.