Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View

Mountbatten House, formerly Gateway House, is a substantial office building constructed between 1974 and 1976 as headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape. It was designed by Arup Associates’ Group 2, with landscaping by James Russell.

The building is of reinforced concrete frame construction, clad in bronze-anodised aluminium panels with bronze-tinted glass set within steel box mullions. Two stair towers are prominent features, constructed in blue engineering brick. The flat roof gardens are constructed with a complex waterproof system including cellular glass, mastic asphalt, cement screed, and a minimum 225mm of soil, rising to 900mm.

The building occupies an almost square plan, oriented north-south, and is largely symmetrical around a diagonal axis. A series of terraced roof gardens step down diagonally to create a courtyard on the south side. The stair towers at the southwest and southeast corners have rounded corners. The basement contains a large car park, and the lower-ground floor houses plant rooms and offices, with access to a courtyard featuring a pond and stepping stones. The ground-floor entrance and reception area is flanked by a double-height staff restaurant and plant room, behind which lie offices and access to a roof garden. The first, second, and third floors consist of open-plan offices that have, in part, been subdivided, all opening onto roof gardens.

The formal entrance, facing Basing View, is raised and accessed by broad steps, with two wings rising four storeys plus a basement. A double-height opening, four bays square, marks the main entrance. The elevations are based on a repeated 7.5-meter bay module, featuring full-width glazing divided into five lights. The external cladding incorporates deep bronzed-aluminium spandrel panels with mitred joints and a chamfered frame. The stair towers have narrow slit windows. The rear south-east elevation is characterised by cascading roof gardens planted with trees, shrubs, and climbers. The glazing on the front of the building is flush with the concrete frame, while the rear glazing is recessed to reduce solar heat gain.

The internal layout and circulation remain largely intact, although portions of the open-plan offices on each floor have been subdivided. Interior features include cruciform concrete columns supporting pre-cast coffered ceilings forming truncated pyramids with integrated lighting. Lift lobbies and staircase walls feature travertine marble panelling, and the curved walls of the stair towers are finished in exposed brick. The plant room has ceramic tiled flooring and skirting. A large, approximately 144 cubic meter galvanised steel rainwater tank was located in the basement to irrigate the roof gardens (though unused in 2014).