OXO Tower, Art Deco mixed-use tower on South Bank, London, England
The OXO Tower is an Art Deco mixed-use building on the south bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Southwark. The eighth floor holds a restaurant and brasserie with outdoor platforms that look across the river and the city.
A Royal Mail power station stood here in the 19th century before the Liebig company converted the building for cold storage in the 1920s. Architect Albert Moore designed the new facade with the recognizable windows in the 1930s.
The tower windows spell the name of a former meat extract brand, while today galleries and studios of independent craftspeople fill the lower floors. Visitors can walk through open workshops and watch jewelers, ceramicists, and textile artists at work.
The tower stands on the Thames riverside path, which you can reach on foot from Westminster or Tate Modern. The viewing platform on the eighth floor is open to the public even if you do not dine at the restaurant.
The three window letters were designed to bypass advertising bans of the time because they counted as an architectural element. The solution allowed the meat company to display its name widely without formally breaking the law.
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