The Carmelite

The Carmelite House in London, then home of Associated Newspapers, was a high-tech building, originally built in the 1980s by architects Tim Kempster and Norman Foster. For its atrium, Brian Clarke designed five monumental cut-pile tapestries and a series of stained glass windows on the Thames-side façade along the Victoria Embankment and on the Carmelite Street elevation. Designed in 1991 and completed in 1992, the tapestries totalled 3,365 square feet.

Clarke said:

‘When I was initially approached to do a project at the Carmelite, […] my solution was to link the floors together vertically with tapestry. The story unfolds to you in its complexity and simplicity as you move between floors, or look across from the lifts or walkways. The tapestries brought colour to the back of the building and made it a happening space where you’d want to be. I also designed a series of stained glass lancet windows on the river-side of the Carmelite – they could be seen at night from the Royal College of Heralds.’

Carmelite Riverside was demolished, and the project disassembled, in 2013.