Two Temple Place, sitting on the Victoria embankment and commissioned by and built for William Waldorf Astor in the 1890s was both an ornate historical and literary fantasy and a working office. It retains that unusual public-private mode to this day. It is the home of the Bulldog Trust, a social impact charity using Two Temple Place for a key tool in its cultural, community and educational work, making it available for public and private use as a core element of what we do. We take the guardianship of this remarkable building very seriously, with conservation projects in constant development. On this page, we summarise the Astors’ back story of how they came by their remarkable fortune, the biography of William Waldorf Astor and how that helped create the building, Two Temple Place’s rise from the ashes of WWII bombing and its modern history culminating in its current vital charity role.
Two Temple Place
Remade and Extended 1944-1960s
William Waldorf Astor
Romantic Time Traveller
William Waldorf Astor
Cosmopolitan Inheritance
William Waldorf Astor
Progress and History
William Waldorf Astor
A Very Private Public Figure
William Waldorf Astor
An Immigrant Making a New Start
The Astors
Landlords Among the Gangs of New York
The Astors
A Fortune Built in the West
Current Guardianship of Two Temple Place
History
Timeline of Key Two Temple Place Dates
1870 Construction of the Victoria Embankment was completed alongside Bazalgette’s state of the art sewage system, creating the site of 2TP.
1892 William Waldorf Astor bought the land and John Loughborough Pearson was commissioned as the architect for 2TP. When Astor acquired the land, it was industrial and occupied by the big open-roofed warehouse of Gwynne’s, the Pumping Engineers.
1895 -1922 Building was, remarkably, completed in only three years and 2TP used as the Astor estate office, known as Astor House. It contained a private apartment for Astor which he would use more and more when he was in London after he was widowed.
1922 -28 2TP was sold by Astor’s sons soon after his death (1919), and became known as Sun of Canada House, being the property of Sun Life Insurance Canada.
1928 -1959 The building was owned by Incorporated Accountants. A V1 flying bomb hit during WW2 and left extensive damage. A very sympathetic and expensive remodelling was led by the former President of RIBA at a time when many similar buildings would have been torn down.
1959-1998 Pharmaceutical company Smith & Nephew occupied the building, and work on the building over this period includes the extension of a new West Wing where the Bulldog Trust and 2TP now has its offices.
1998 – present Owned by charity the Bulldog Trust, a charity which uses Two Temple Place as a tool for unlocking opportunity for those who may lack it.
2011 – present Annual exhibitions and greater opening to the public and to educational and community activity.
Get in touch with us on 020 7836 3715 or at info@twotempleplace.org
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