Your indispensable guide to the capital

A Fresh Face

DRIVERS and cyclists held at the lights at the south end of London Bridge as they wait to cross into Southwark from the City cannot help but notice a striking landmark. Immediately ahead, marooned amid bridges, viaducts and the vast developments subsidiary to The Shard, is a striking, singlestorey frontage from the 1890s covered in white glazed tiles, its pediment inset with a large clock and the head of a stag. This commercial building was formerly occupied by the wine merchant Findlater Mackie Todd & Co, one of 50 shops once managed by the firm in London and south-east England. It latterly became an Oddbins shop.

Since 2018, Findlater’s Corner—as it is known—has stood empty. It has also looked increasingly down at heel with its boarded windows covered by posters and buddleia bushes springing from the balustraded parapets. Now, it is loved once more, having been restored as part of a wider Project 1000. This work has been undertaken by the architect Benedict O’Looney for the Arch Company, which aims, with a £200 million investment, to bring 1,000 arches under railway viaducts into commercial use. The vast majority of a much larger portfolio of arches it bought from Network Rail in 2019 for £1.5 billion are in London. As part of the same project, a mosaic frontage to a neighbouring arch advertising the Express Dairy Company has also been revealed. JG