16 Tokenhouse Yard, Lothbury (City of London), by Enoch Bassett Keeling (1837-1886) was completed in 1880, and described in The Builder shortly before completion as a substantial commercial building with "Portland and Corsehill red sandstone" to the first floor, then "kiln-burnt red brickwork" above it. The rear of the building was faced with "white glazed bricks." This was not in the "Rogue Goth" style of his earlier work: in fact Edmund Harris characterises it as Keeling's "first excursion into Queen Anne style" (124), a style which Harris suggests elsewhere in his book was "congenial for a designer who wished to move away from Gothic, but could not or would not make the leap to full-blown Classicism" (75).
Still, there was something of the old Keeling here: referring to the vivid red of the sandstone and brickwork, and the detailing, Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner describe the original façade in dramatic terms as "wildly eclectic, its bloody-minded decoration remotely of Renaissance derivation but without any obvious precedent," and explain that the "tame classical stone refacing of the 1950s has spoilt the lower floors" (608). Then there was the "considerable ingenuity" with which Keeling had addressed lighting and ventilation issues in the constricted site, and which The Builder not only remarks on, but shows on a separate page, because his solutions "may prove suggestive in other cases." The set of diagrams is headed, "Details of showing mode of meeting questions of light & air" (see below left). Keeling's success in these respects echoed the skill he had previously demonstrated in creating the spacious auditorium of the Strand Music Hall, with its glittering, well-lit ceiling.
The building on Tokenhouse Yard was far less visible than that controversial Strand building. Indeed, this is one of London's (almost) secret places, its tall buildings approached by a narrow alleyway and set on a courtyard in the financial heart of the city. But it is a place with a long and fascinating history going back to the seventeenth century, when the Tokenhouse issued farthing trading tokens for merchants. Nos. 11 and 12 have both been listed by English Heritage, at Grade II and Grade II* respectively. Although No. 16 has not been listed, it is in the same prime heritage location, and Keeling's work here would have been a sign that he was establishing himself again after a difficult period in his life.
From the Builder's account, we learn that this was an impressively large building: it had thirty-five rooms, rising from "extensive fireproof wine-cellars" through a large chamber to strong-rooms, book-rooms etc, with a goods entrance, office and counting-rooms on the other (Telegraph Street) front. It must have fitted the bill, because Keeling designed another, plainer building nearby, on Telegraph Street, soon afterwards.
Tokenhouse Yard has been subject to redevelopment in the present century, but Keeling's frontage has been retained. The idea of façadism would surely not have pleased him, but at least it leaves a trace of his work in front of what has now been adapted into "a number of small residential units" ("When Historic Meets Modern").
Bibliography
Bradley, Simon, and Nikolaus Pevsner. London: 1. The City of London. London: Penguin, 1997.
Harris, Edmund. The Rogue Goths: R.L. Roumieu, Joseph Peacock and Bassett Keeling. Swindon: Liverpool University Press for Historic England, 2024.
"London Commercial Buildings: Provision for Ancient Lights." The Builder. Vol. 39 (14 August 1880): 215.
Thornbury, Walter. "Lothbury," in Old and New London: Vol. 1 London, 1878. British History Online. Web. 11 April 2025. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol1/pp513-515.
Weinreb, Ben, Christopher Hibbert, Julia Keay and John Keay. The London Encyclopaedia. Revised 3rd ed. London: Macmillan, 2008.
"When historic meets modern: Moorgate building redevelopment." Barnshaws. Web. 12 April 2025. https://www.barnshaws.com/news/when-historic-meets-modern-moorgate-building-redevelopment
Created 12 April 2025