Financial Times Printing Works
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The entrance facade
Jo Reid and John Peck Download Original
Glazed and aluminium-clad technical building that was designed to allow passing commuters to see the paper's two vast printing presses
An open plan structure divides the building into two clear-span zones either side of a central service spine that contain paper storage at each end. The presses, now decommissioned, were visible from the East India Dock Road through a long glazed screen.
The central lengths of each side facade are glazed with solid end bays and staircase towers on the entrance side. The solid skin is made with vacuum-formed panels of aluminum.
The 96m long screen is made up of a frameless structural glazing system developed especially for the building. Columns are set at 6m centres. Each side of the column has projecting steel cantilevers, positioning the stainless steel ‘dinner plates’, which secure the glass at the place where four sheets meet. The vertical load at the plate is taken by tension rods extending up and over to the head of the column.
Data
- Completed: 1988
- Floor area: 14,000m2
- Sector: Industrial
- Total cost: £18.3M
- Address: 24 East India Dock Road, London, E14 9YY, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Grimshaw
- Project architects: Nicholas Grimshaw, Paul Grayshon, Rosemary Latter
- Client: Financial Times, St. Clement's Press
- Structural engineer: J. Robinson & Sons
- Interior Architects: Robinson Design Partnership
- Services engineer: Cundall Johnston & Partners
- Management Contractor: Bovis Construction
- Quantity surveyor: Smerdon & Jones