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Millbank Pier
Peter Ackroyd on Millbank
'In December 1927 the tide reached 17 feet 3 inches, but in the following year it peaked to 18 feet 3 inches. The river-banks at Millbank were breached, and fourteen people drowned. On 6 January 1928 a storm in the North Sea created a tidal surge that raised the waters of the river to their highest recorded level. The defensive walls of the Embankment were breached at Hammersmith and at Millbank. Fourteen people were drowned in the basements of Westminster. The other great flood was of March 1947, and in most locks the two high makers commemorate the floods of 1894 and 1947.'
'Tilbury Fort was employed as a prison, and the Millbank penitentiary (now the site of the Tate Gallery) was a famous 'modern' prison organised on Benthamite principles. The octagonal shape of the gaol is still visible from the air; a sculpture by Henry Moore, 'The Locking Piece' marks the point where the prisoners boarded the ships that would take them down the Thames on their way to Australia. The river would be one of their last views of England.'
Peter Ackroyd's Readings on Millbank
To hear Peter Ackroyd's Readings on Millbank
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History of the piers
History at Millbank Pier.
Download the exclusive Dark Waters history of the piers pdf here (pdf - 2MB).
Buildings around Millbank Pier
- Number Key for Dark Waters Map Side One
- 1-18, 22, 24
- (20 buildings)
- 1
- Lots Road Power Station
- Lots Road SW10
- Proposed scheme by Terry Farrell & Partners
- 2
- Cremorne Gardens Canoe Club
- Lots Road SW10
- Sarah Wigglesworth Architects
- RIBA Award 2008
- 3
- Battersea Power Station
- 188 Kirtling Street SW8 5BP
- Sir Giles Gilbert Scott
- Grade II listed
- 4
- Churchill Gardens
- Pimlico SW1
- Powell and Moya Architects
- Grade II listed
- First Royal Gold Medallists 1974
- 5
- Pimlico School
- Lupus Street SW1V 3AT
- Greater London Council Department
- of Architecture
- RIBA Award 1972
- 6
- Lillington Gardens
- Vauxhall Bridge Rd SW1V 2LF
- Darbourne & Darke
- RIBA Award 1970
- 7
- Vauxhall Cross - MI6 HQ
- Lambeth SW8 2LR
- Terry Farrell & Partners
- 8
- Tate Britain
- Millbank SW1P 4RG
- Sidney RJ Smith (original design) Grade II* listed
- John Miller & Partners (Centenary Development)
- RIBA Award 2001
- 9
- Millbank Millennium Pier
- Millbank SW1
- Marks Barfield Architects
- RIBA Award 2004
- 10
- Home Office and HM Prison Service HQ
- Marsham Street SW1P
- Terry Farrell and Partners
- RIBA Award 2005
- 11
- Millbank Tower
- Millbank SW1P 4QP
- Ronald Ward & Partners
- Grade II listed
- 12
- Thames House – MI5 HQ
- Millbank SW1
- Sir F Baines
- Grade II listed
- 13
- Lambeth Palace
- Lambeth Palace Road SE1 7JU
- Grade I listed
- 14
- Palace of Westminster
- Westminster SW1
- Sir Charles Barry & Augustus Welby Pugin
- Grade I listed and World Heritage Site
- 15
- Evelina Children's Hospital
- Lambeth Palace Road SE1 7EH
- Michael Hopkins and Partners
- RIBA Award & Stirling Prize shortlist 2006
- 16
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- King Charles Street SE1
- Sir George Gilbert Scott / Matthew Digby Wyatt
- Grade I listed
- 17
- Portcullis House & Westminster
- Underground Station
- Victoria Embankment SW1A 2LW
- Michael Hopkins and Partners
- RIBA Award & Stirling Prize shortlist 2001
- 18
- Banqueting House
- Whitehall SW1A 2ER
- Inigo Jones
- Grade I listed
- 22
- The London Eye
- Jubilee Gardens, Belvedere Road SE1
- Marks Barfield Architects
- RIBA Award & Stirling Prize shortlist 2000
- 24
- Waterloo International Terminal
- Lambeth SE1 7LT
- Grimshaw and Partners
- RIBA Award 1994