The Spirit of Electricity is a Grade II listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 January 2016. Sculpture. 19 related planning applications.
The Spirit of Electricity
- WRENN ID
- vast-baluster-pigeon
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Westminster
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 January 2016
- Type
- Sculpture
- Address
- The Spirit of Electricity, Orion House, Upper St Martin's Lane, London, City of Westminster, WC2 9EA
- OS grid reference
- TQ 300 809
- Coordinates
- 51.51259, -0.12754
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Spirit of Electricity is a sculpture created between 1958 and 1961 by Geoffrey Clarke RA for Thorn Electrical Industries as part of their new headquarters, Orion House. It is mounted on a projecting service stack on the east side of Orion House, facing Lichfield Street. The sculpture, which is cast bronze and originally included integrated light fittings (now non-functional), stands 23.5 metres high. It is an abstract work taking the form of a narrow, concave pod resembling an African shield, which projects from the wall and is mounted on a tall vertical spike. The sculpture’s surface features a complex arrangement of spikes, pipes, rods, and thorn-like projections.
Local climate
The Spirit of Electricity sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 8 transactions since 2013
- Related listed building consents — 19 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
- 1 Spiral Nebula outside the Herschel Building, off Haymarket Lane, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne
- 2 Parsons' Polygon,Blackett Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
- 3 Congress House Including Forecourt and Courtyard Sculptures
- 4 The Watchers Behind Downshire House (Roehampton University) Alton Estate
- 5 Untitled sculpture, University of York
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