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Architecture,

Shell Mex House, 80 Strand, London

Shell-Mex House 80 Strand
Shell Mex House is at 80, Strand, London, UK. Broadly speaking in an Art Deco style, it was designed by Ernest Joseph, a Jewish architect who was a leading designer of synagogues, including the Art Deco-style synagogue at Sheepcote Street, Birmingham, and the classical-style synagogue in St. John's Wood Road, London (of which only the facade remains).

The current building was completed in 1930–31 on the site of the Cecil Hotel (so called because it was built on the site of Cecil House), and stands between the Adelphi Terrace and the Savoy Hotel.

Standing 58 m (190 ft) tall, with 537,000 sq ft (49,900 m2) of floor space, Shell Mex House has 12 floors (plus basement and sub-basement) and is immediately recognizable from the River Thames and the South Bank by the clock tower positioned on the south side of the building (flanked by two large, hieratic figures at the south corners). In the words of architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, the building "is thoroughly unsubtle, but succeeds in holding its own in London's river front."