Ventilation Shaft Cover, Pimlico is a Grade II listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 January 2016. A Contemporary Sculpture. 4 related planning applications.
Ventilation Shaft Cover, Pimlico
- WRENN ID
- winter-iron-heath
- 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
- Period
- Contemporary
- Address
- Ventilation Shaft Cover, Pimlico, Bessborough Street, London, Sw1v, City of Westminster, SW1V 2JA
- OS grid reference
- TQ 297 783
- Coordinates
- 51.48922, -0.13301
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Ventilation Shaft Cover in Pimlico is a sculpture created by Eduardo Paolozzi, installed in 1982, likely for an underground car park. It is situated in a public open space between numbers 1 and 2 Bessborough Street.
This high-tech piece features cast steel panels and stainless steel on a thin cast steel plinth. The sculpture stands approximately 12 meters high and consists of four sides of cast panels that rise to about 4 meters. Each panel displays irregularly arranged cast images depicting mechanical parts from various sources, including machinery, aircraft, mechanical diggers, insects, fish, clocks, and geometric shapes in different sizes. The lower panel on the south side bears the cast inscription ‘E.PAOLOZZI/LONDON 1982’.
Above the panels, there are two tanks separated by latticed panels, with exposed rivets. Each tank features louvred panels on the west and east sides and solid panels on the north and south. From the base of the lowest tank, stainless steel pipes extend from each corner to the top of the grilles, while additional pipes of varying diameters are attached to the south and north faces of the lower tank.
Local climate
Ventilation Shaft Cover, Pimlico 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.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 4 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.
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