Mondial House

Mondial House - A 20th Century Landmark

Mondial House Europe's largest international telecommunications complex. In the late Seventies (circa 1978) De Havilland and Mollison International Switching Centres at Stag Lane were already carrying the growth in ISD traffic and Mondial House was only just nearing completion along the banks of the River Thames...
*[BTI brochure December 1984]*	A Landmark in the City International Repeater Station International Sound Programme Centre International Transmission Maintenance Centres International Accounting and Traffic Analysis Equipment Mondial International Control Centre Mondial International Switching Centre Thames International Switching Centres Mondial Gateway Mondial Miscellanea
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Mondial House
A Landmark
in the City

Mondial House-A Landmark in the City

Mondial House was an ambitious building project both in terms of size and complexity. It was originally conceived as a 15-20 storey tower block and podium, but as with most of the riverside sites in Central London, the final design had to ensure that views of St. Paul's Cathedral remained unobstructed. The end result was a ziggurat (step-back) design of 12 storeys-the 8 above ground reaching a height of 46 metres. Planned in 1970, the structure is a typical '21st century' design of concrete and white plastic cladding which quite effectively conceals a densely packed area of 57,000 square metres on a 1.1 hectare site.

The building has to be viewed from a distance (the opposite bank of the Thames or from the air) in order to realise its sheer scale and character. At close range, there is not much fine detail, simply a towering bulk of solid mass.

Mondial
IRS
The International Repeater Station

On the main part of 2 floors.

Mondial
ISPC
The International Sound Programme Centre

On the north-west corner of the upper ground floor.

Mondial
ITMC's
The International Transmission Maintenance Centres

Two ITMCs were located on the first floor of Mondial...

Mondial
IATAE
The International Accounting and Traffic Analysis Equipment

For Mondial and Thames A ISCs, this was located on the third floor. Thames B formed part of the equipment.

Mondial
ICC
The International Control Centre

Located on the sixth floor...

Mondial's International Control Centre was officially opened on 3rd May 1984 by Lady Jefferson. [At the time, Sir George Jefferson was chairman of British Telecom].

Mondial
ISC
Mondial International Switching Centre (1980)

On the entire fourth floor and part of the third.

Mondial TXK2 was introduced in 1978 at Mondial House, Upper Thames Street – the building was very late – it had originally been intended to install the Stag Lane units here. Instead Stag Lane (an old aircraft factory) was used. The Mondial TXK2 of around 5000e employed a different version of K2 technology than Wood Street and DeHavilland. It used separate signalling sender-receivers and didn’t have the curious outgoing side registers formerly employed. Later in its life, BT developed a computer controlled replacement for the coders, which handled the translations and routing information.

Thames
ISC
Thames International Switching Centre

Was located on the second floor of Mondial, with Thames B extension on part of the first.

The Thames ISC was installed in two stages which were officially known as:

Phase 1-Thames A
Phase 2-Thames B

An engineering manager quotes "We always called them (Thames) 1 and 2 - I think the folks who did the 'official' designations said that you couldn't use numbers!"

Mondial
Gateway
The Digital Gateway

"Thorn Ericsson Telecommunications and AT & T and Philips Telecommunications have been awarded orders worth more than £30 million by British Telecom for two new large international telephone exchanges of advanced digital design."

"The two exchanges-an AXE10 design from Thorn Ericsson and a 5ESS PRX from AT & T Philips-are being bought for British Telecom International (BTI) and both will come into service in 1988 at London's Kelvin House and Mondial House respectively. By 1990, they will provide an extra 80,000 lines to help meet continuing high growth."

In order to close the Mondial TXK2, an AT&T 5ESS DISC was installed to carry all the minor routes that Mondial specialised in. The 5ESS was itself withdrawn in the 1990s, so it had a short life.

Mondial
Misc.
Mondial Miscellanea

Today (2001) BT Openworld occupy the 3rd & 4th floors of Mondial. Click here for pictures of the floors before (and after) the refurbishment took place.
The name Mondial House was chosen following a 'competition' (1976) for suggestions among External Telecommunications Executive (ETE) HQ staff.
POEU March 1970: The building will be called Mondial House ("mondial": world-wide). The building will incorporate a riverside promenade, public walkways at first floor level and a fire station [Dowgate] fronting on to Upper Thames Street to meet the requirements of the Greater London Council and the City of London.
In the 2005 financial year, BT successfully disposed of Mondial House for £51 million .[source BT Annual Report 2005]
18th January 2006: "UBS has been granted permission to demolish Mondial House, a former BT telephone exchange next to Cannon Street station, to make way for a 545,000 sq ft office and shopping project, which will be called Watermark Place." [Source www.timesonline.co.uk ]
Fletcher Priest Architects have designed Watermark Place to be built on the site [See www.fletcherpriest.com/p077.asp ]

According to the 'London Encyclopaedia', the All Hallows churchyard was not removed until 1969; Mondial House was built soon after.

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References

Mondial House is at 90-94 Upper Thames Street, London, EC4R 3UB.
BTI Brochure-Designed by Terence Kingston Project Design London, Printed in England by Gavin Martin Ltd. December BTI PR 286 British Telecommunications plc.
Post Office Telecommunications Journals Spring 1978.
POEEJ January 1978 - The TXK2 Switching System and Peripheral Equipment at Mondial International Telephone Services Centre by D.C. Modi and K.W. Young.

With thanks to Mark Rippingale, Adrian Russell, Peter Walker and John Burt, Leon Baird and contributors.

Landmark in the City photo (middle left): © Margaret Chenery
Mondial Demolition photo (top): © 2006 Leon Baird
Compiled by Light-Straw © 1997-2007

	Mondial House was an ambitious building project both in terms of size and complexity. It was originally conceived as a 15-20 storey tower block and podium, but as with most of the riverside sites in Central London, the final design had to ensure that views of St. Paul's Cathedral remained unobstructed. The end result was a ziggurat (step-back) design of 12 storeys-the 8 above ground reaching a height of 46 metres. Planned in 1970, the structure is a typical '21st century' design of concrete and white plastic cladding which quite effectively conceals a densely packed area of 57,000 square metres on a 1.1 hectare site.

The building has to be viewed from a distance (the opposite bank of the Thames or from the air) in order to realise its sheer scale and character. At close range, there is not much fine detail, simply a towering bulk of solid mass.