Oxo Tower Design Studios

Oxo Tower Wharf in London is a former power station turned creative design hub featuring vertical windows shaped like the letters O-X-O to bypass 1920s riverbank advertising restrictions. Originally constructed around 1900 for the Post Office, the building was acquired by the Liebig Extract of Meat Company. In the 1990s, Coin Street Community Builders executed a twenty million pound refurbishment to host public artisan studios.

London Β· from the walk β€œThe Artist's Thames” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House Street, London SE1 9PH

Why are the windows of the Oxo Tower in London shaped like the letters O-X-O?

Look up at this tower... and tell me what you see. Four sets of windows, stacked vertically, each side spelling out three unmistakable letters: O... X... O. But how did a brand name end up embedded in the architecture of a building on the Thames?......... The Oxo Tower's history dates back to nineteen hundred, when the original building was constructed as a power station to supply electricity to the Post Office. A hulking brick engine house, humming with current, powering every telegram and letter that left the Royal Mail. Then in the nineteen twenties, the Liebig Extract of Meat Company β€” makers of Oxo beef stock cubes β€” acquired it for conversion into a cold store.......... Now here's the brilliant part. With advertising rules putting a damper on skyline ads along the River Thames, they turned to their inventive architect, Albert Moore. He took on the challenge and brilliantly wove Oxo's branding right into the building's architecture... designing windows shaped like the letters O, X, O. The three letters were incorporated into the structure of the building. This was architecture, not advertising, and it allowed the company to circumvent the rules. A masterclass in creative problem-solving that any visual artist can appreciate!......... At that time, the building was named Stamford Wharf and was London's second highest commercial building. Meat, delivered by barge, was passed through loading bays β€” which you can still see on the riverside β€” into cold stores, then processed and packed.......... By the early nineteen seventies, the building was derelict. And then something remarkable happened. By the time Coin Street Community Builders bought the Wharf, the Only activity was related to two barges, which were used as a floating helicopter port. Yes... a heliport! Right here on the Thames. The first act of this community group was to close the heliport, bringing peace back to the riverside!......... What followed was one of London's Great stories of community-led regeneration. In the nineteen nineties, Coin Street Community Builders began a major refurbishment project. The twenty million pound refurbishment was designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. The brief was extraordinary: independent shops at ground level, then two stories of affordable designer-maker workshops. The idea was that people would actually work, making art and craft, and selling it, and that the public would be able to watch them doing it.......... And that is Exactly what you'll find if you step inside today. The creative community includes jewellers, ceramicists, milliners, lighting designers, furniture makers, and textile artists. A short stroll down the walkways finds you in light-filled studios β€” like The Ringsmiths, where an award-winning jewellery duo host their sell-out ring-making workshops, with about three hundred people a month passing through.......... As a visual artist walking this stretch of Thames, consider this: this is an anti-mall experience, where every item on sale is unique and handmade. You are watching creation happen in real time β€” hands shaping metal, fingers glazing clay β€” all inside a building that is itself a work of design genius. A stock cube company's cheeky act of guerrilla branding... transformed into London's most Living gallery.

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