Two Temple Place is a neo-Gothic mansion on the Victoria embankment commissioned by and built for William Waldorf Astor in the 1890s.
Astor emigrated to England from America in 1891 as the richest man in the world, and he spared no expense when work began on Two Temple Place in 1892, so the building now provides us with a vivid narrative of his life and the endeavour of the remarkable craftspeople who shaped it. It was designed by one of the foremost neo-Gothic architects of the late nineteenth-century, John Loughborough Pearson, and in addition to the fantastical and opulent interior, Two Temple Place originally contained the largest strongroom in Europe as well as two other enormous fortified safes. It served as an impregnable bolthole for the reclusive and eccentric Astor, a central London pied-à-terre with his private apartment and bedroom upstairs.
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.