Qualla: Millbank Tower

Millbank Tower: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit oatsy40, CC BY 2.0. For exactly one year - from 1963 until the BT Tower opened in 1964 - Millbank Tower was the tallest building in the United Kingdom. It is no longer that. It has, however, been almost everything else: corporate HQ, election war room, United Nations annexe, television studio for Russia's RT UK, and the site of one of the most consequential student protests in modern British history. Even Nikolaus Pevsner's notoriously hard-to-please architectural guide called it one of the few London office towers to have won affection. The Pevsner editors had clearly been paying attention to what happened in November 2010.

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Image: oatsy40 | CC BY 2.0

Millbank Tower: Vickers House

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. The tower was built in 1963 for Vickers, the British engineering and arms manufacturer, and was originally known as Vickers House or Vickers Tower. The architect was Ronald Ward and Partners; the contractor was John Mowlem. At 119 metres it is slim, faceted, and curtain-walled in...

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Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Millbank Tower: Labour Moves In

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0. From 1994 the Labour Party rented two floors at the base of the south end of the site, transforming them into a general election campaign centre. From here, in 1997, the party ran the campaign that returned Tony Blair to Downing Street with a landslide. The image of Millbank-as-p...

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Image: Txllxt TxllxT | CC BY-SA 4.0

Millbank Tower: The Day Students Came

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 10 November 2010 the National Union of Students called a mass demonstration in central London against the coalition government's planned tripling of university tuition fees. The official route was a sober march to a rally; the unexpected route led several thousand protesters t...

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Image: Txllxt TxllxT | CC BY-SA 4.0

Millbank Tower: An Unusual Tenant Mix

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0. Between 2006 and 2014 the Conservative Party themselves were based at 30 Millbank within the same complex - the political coincidence of the country's two main parties operating from the same address has fed countless jokes since. Other occupants over the years read like a direct...

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Image: Txllxt TxllxT | CC BY-SA 4.0

Millbank Tower: The Next Chapter

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Since 2002 the tower has been owned by the brothers David and Simon Reuben, while managed by its former owner Tishman Speyer Properties. In April 2016, Westminster City Council granted the Reubens permission to redevelop the building despite its listed status. The plans call for ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0