Michelin House
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Michelin House at 81 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London was constructed as the 1st permanent UK Headquarters and tyre depot for the Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. The building opened for business on the 20th January 1911.
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[edit] Brief history
Designed by one of Michelin’s employees François Espinasse, the original building features 3 large stained glass windows. The designs are based on Michelin adverts of the time, and all feature the Michelin Man “Bibendum”. At street level there are a number of decorative tiles of famous racing cars of the time which used Michelin tyres. These decorative tiles wrap around the front of the original building. More tiles can be found inside the front of the building which was originally a tyre fitting bay for passing motorists. As you walk into the reception of the building you are greeted by a gorgeous mosaic on the floor of Bibendum holding aloft a glass of nuts, bolts and other hazards proclaiming “Nunc Est Bibendum” (Latin for “now is the time to drink”). The reception area features more decorative tiles around it’s walls. Two glass cupolas, which look like piles of tyres, frame either side of the front of the building.
One of Michelin’s other loves is maps. This is represented by a number of etchings of the streets of Paris on some of the first floor windows.
Michelin moved out of the building in 1985, and it was purchased by the late publisher Paul Hamlyn and restaurateur/retailer Sir Terrance Conran. The pair had shared a love for the building for many years and embarked on a major redevelopment, which included the restoring of some the buildings original features. The new development featured offices for Paul Hamlyn’s publishing company and a shop and restaurant for Sir Terrance Conran’s retailing and restaurant group.
In August 1987 Michelin House re-opened as a restaurant and bar: Bibendum Restaurant & Oyster Bar, offices for Octopus Publishing and The Conran Shop.
[edit] Michelin history
Two brothers, Edouard and Andre Michelin ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day a cyclist turned up at the factory whose pneumatic tyre was in need of repair. The tyre was glued to the rim. It took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day Edouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred meters the tyre failed. Despite the setback Edouard was enthusiastic about pneumatic tyre and along with his brother worked on creating their own tyre but one which did not need to be glued to the rim. In 1891 Michelin took out their first patient for a removable pneumatic tyre.
[edit] Making of the Michelin building
Patents owned by Dunlop prevented other manufactures from selling their tyres in Britain, except under licence. The patents were due to expire in the autumn of 1904, and in anticipation of this Michelin opened an office in Tavistock Place, South Kensington. Michelin sent four employees over from France to Britain to establish the new British Branch of the company. Fourteen local staff were also recruited. In June 1905 the Michelin Tyre Company Limited was incorporated. Within a year the staff had increased to over forty and the company moved into new premises in Sussex Place. It soon became apparent that the company needed much larger premises, the search for a new site began. A number of different sites were looked into and the earliest plans for a purpose-built London Headquarters date from 1906 for a site on Vauxhall Bridge Road. In 1909 a site on the Fulham Road was offered to the company. Fulham Road, one of the main routes into London was considered a great location. Later that same year a piece of land bordered by Fulham Road, Sloane Avenue, Leader Street and Lucan Place was purchased freehold from Cadgan and Hans Estate Co. Work on a design for the building had already begun and on 4th April 1910 the final designs for Michelin House were completed. Shortly after work began on the building’s construction.
[edit] Michelin House's technical side
Michelin House is known for its decorative design. What cannot be seen from its exterior or interior design is that it is an early example of concrete construction in Britain.
The building was constructed using Hennebique's ferro-concrete construction system. The ferro-concrete system offered great benefits for the construction of clear open spaces (ideal for storing tyres in the most efficient way). The system also offered fire resistance properties which were very important when storing large quantities of highly flammable tyres.
The system also offered a high speed of construction. Michelin House took only 5 months to construct. The original floors were constructed using hole pot tiles. This flooring system as well as being highly durable also offered very good fire proofing qualities.
Other interesting original features in Michelin House were automatic doors into the entrance hall and a weighing bay in the fitting area which weighed customers' cars so the correct tyre pressure could be applied.
[edit] The architect
The architect behind Michelin House was François Espinasse (1880-1925), who was employed as an engineer in the construction department at Michelin’s headquarters in Clermount-Ferrand. It is believed that he worked on the design of Michelin's Headquarters in Paris (1908), but this is the only other known architectural work of his. The French Order of Architects in Paris have no record of him. Not much else is known about him other than he spent most of his working life at Michelin.
[edit] Architectural style
It is hard to define the architectural style of Michelin House. It was designed and built at the end of the Art-Nouveau period, parts of this style of design can be seen in the decorative metal work at the front of the building above the fitting bays, and the tangling plants round the tyre motifs at the front and side of the building, and also in the mosaic in the entrance hall. Despite this Michelin House is very much like an Art-Deco building, the popular style of the 1930s with its prominent roadside position and its strong advertising images. In this respect Michelin House is a building twenty years before its time and is also the first of the highly decorated buildings ‘built on tyres’, as Michelin House was built before Fort Dunlop (1916) and The Firestone Building (1933-1980).
[edit] The rise and fall of Michelin House
On January 20th 1911 Michelin House was officially opened. The building offered everything the motorist of the time required. Fitting bays at the front of the building allowed motorist to have there tyres speedily changed by Michelin fitters from the stock of over 30,000 tyre stored in the building’s basement. Tyres were bought up on a lift and rolled to the front of the building along the purposely sloped floor. To the left of the front recipient a ‘Touring Office’ provided maps and writing implements for the keen motorist to plan there journey.
Within a year of opening work started on an extension to the building. The extension was built to provide additional office space and included a 2nd floor. The extension was built along the Lucan Place side of the building. A further extension was built in 1922, ten years after the first. Built where a garage had stood it reached 3 floors.
In 1927 Michelin built a factory in Stoke-on-Trent using the firm of Peter Lind & Company of London. The factory started producing the first British made Michelin tyres and in 1930 the company moved their head office to Stoke-on-Trent. Michelin continued to use the basement and the ground floor of the building, but over two-thirds were left empty. Between 1933 and 1940 the upper storeys were let as a furniture warehouse, a workshop and offices for the Air Ministry.
In 1940, because of the risk of bombing, Michelin removed the three stained glass windows. They were carefully packed into wooden crates and sent to the Stoke-on-Trent factory for safe keeping. After the war Michelin returned its headquarters to London. The reduced staff meant only the front original part of the building was occupied, while the rest of the building was leased. In 1950 a long term lease was signed by a new tenant which consisted of the space created in the 1912 and 1922 extensions. In 1952 a 3rd extension was added for the tenant. A steel frame construction, it extended part of the 2nd floor and added a 3rd floor along the Lucan Place side of the building.
In 1960 Michelin and their tenant began a modernisation programme for the interior of the building. The programme went along with the general taste of the time. Although the work concentrated on the interior of the building, the possibility of update the exterior of the building with a cement rendered facade was one option considered. The modernisation programme involved splitting up the open plan office and the heavy use of wood panelling.
On 15th April 1969 the original front section of the Michelin Building was given a Grade II listing. Despite this, outline planning permission was granted to demolish all but the listed part and build a ten storey office block. Michelin instead decided to spend the money on a new factory in North America.
[edit] The building for sale
In 1985 there was a buzz in the property industry, the word was out that Michelin were willing to sell Michelin House, and indeed it was true. Michelin House was now impractical for the company's needs. It was located in an expensive and fashionable part of London, and did not fit their office requirements.
Many people made bids to buy the building, two of whom where friends. Sir Terence Conran (the Restaurateur and retailer) and Paul Hamlyn (owner of the Octopus Publishing Group) had unknowingly been bidding against each other. On discovering this they formed a partnership to purchase Michelin House.
In August 1985 Michelin House was sold to Sir Terence Conran and Paul Hamlyn for 8 million pounds. Plans were then set into action to create a new lease of life for Michelin House. The development included a major retailing store, restaurant, bar and large office space.
[edit] The rebirth of Michelin House
In November 1985 Conran Roche and YRM, the architects and designers put in charge by Michelin House Developments (the company set up to redevelop the building) made an application for planning permission to increase the existing floor area from 90,000 to 118,000 square feet. This would be achieved by building a new steel and glass structure that would fill the space occupied by the side loading bay on the Sloane Avenue side, and by adding a new neater front end to the 3rd floor and secondly, adding a new 4th floor and plant room above. Planning permission was granted and work began.
The chief contractor was Bovis who worked on the shell and core. Conran Roche work on the interior of the new Conran Shop, and YRM worked on the interiors of the Octopus Publishing Offices.
Conran Roche and YRM had to search for suppliers to recreate many of the buildings original features. The three stained glass windows which had been removed for safety during the Second World War had been lost and the glass cupolas at the front of the building had disappeared. After a long search suppliers were found, and replicas of the windows and cupolas were made using original drawings, photos and posters.
In August 1987 Michelin House re-opened.
[edit] Recent history
In the late 1990s Reed/Octopus Publishing moved out of the offices, and in 1999 Monitor Group, an international business consulting firm, moved into the office space.
[edit] External links
- Bibendum Restaurant
- The Conran Shop
- Conran & Partners (formally Conran Roche then CD Partnership). Conran Roche: Architects & Designers involved in the 1987 Redevelopment
- YRM Limited: Architects, Designers and Planners involved in the 1987 Redevelopment
- Peter Lind & Company
