Walking along Cannon Street I had passed Bracken House many times, but not really given it a second glance. I had wrongly thought of it as a 1980s construction.
However, it is older than that and has a claim to fame. It was constructed between 1955 to 1958, designed by Sir Albert Richardson and served as the headquarters and printing works of the Financial Times on a cleared bomb site just southeast of St Paul’s Cathedral. The newspaper relocated temporarily between 1988 -1992 to allow for an interior redesign and moved back into the building in 2019. In 1987 it gained Grade II listed status, the first building built after the World War Two to be listed.
The building takes it’s name from the Politician and Publisher Brendan Bracken, who in 1945 had successfully merged the Financial Times with the Financial News and later moved the company into the purpose built offices clad in pink sandstone to mirror the colour of the newspaper.
Brendan Bracken
During the Second World War, Bracken had been a leading supporter of Winston Churchill and became one of his closest advisors. There is a nice little nod to this relationship for over the main entrance there is an astrological clock, the centrepiece of which is Winnie, glaring down with a true Churchillian frown on the people who enter the offices.
