Report - Zurich House, Portsmouth, Feb 2011

[chrisr86]

First of all, thanks has to go out to Mffp for the tip-off on entry into the building itself, although it seems that a potential entry I had discovered probably works too. But never mind, his way is much easier (most of the time)!

This was over the course of two visits, the first being with Olz9181 and Robbiekhan and the second visit with zmaricz. As there's not been a report in a while since security was upped in the summer here's some information on the building shamelessly ripped from skyscrapernews.com:

Zurich house in Portsmouth, one of the tallest office buildings on the south coast of England has been earmarked for redevelopment.

The centrally located offices were formerly occupied by the Zurich insurance group but have recently been sold off to developer McAleer and Rushe Group. As part of the deal it also has an additional 0.42 hectares of development land tagged onto it that could see the development of a building up to 100 metres tall with an additional hotel.

The original tower has been designed by the Gollins, Melvin and Ward Partnership who also came up with Sheffield's listed and soon to be renovated Arts Tower. Their work on this building has matured surprisingly well despite being built in 1973 thanks to its slick concave curving frontage and floor to ceiling glazing.

Lovers of the design will be relieved to know the exterior will remain as it already is and the makeover will be entirely internal converting the building from offices.

It comes from the pens of Urban Innovations with Zurich House itself having a business centre on the first floor with the subsequent nine floors each containing 23 bedrooms. An apart-hotel will occupy the upper four floors with a total of 47 units.

Next door, the developers plan a second building that will be another hotel but this time with 243 bedrooms, 38 apartments, 17 affordable homes and 8,000 square metres of office space.

There is also a future phase indicated in plans that could reach up to 100 metres in height complete with a distinctive triangular roofline rising diagonally from the height of its existing neighbour completing this mini cluster. Detailed design however has yet to be done and redevelopment of this will be some years away.

The typical view inside the building. It's all been stripped completely as Zurich relocated their offices to Whiteley.

Not all that interesting...

However, the roof is where it's at.

Views for miles around Portsmouth.

Olz and Robbie doing their thing.

A train leaving Portsmouth & Southsea Station.

Commercial Road.
View attachment 290087

I'm sure some of the other guys will be along at some point to make their additions (and put my pics to shame).

 

[zmaricz]

had a good explore, been waiting for this one for a while! anyways, here's a couple of pics:

Portsmouth and Southsea Station

St John's Cathedral

Looking Down

Guildhall

Looking out to Gunwharf

Me

Chrisr86

And lastly to show just how windy it was up there!

 

[robbiekhan]

I only stepped on some stray pieces of metal/glass/wood all the time, nothing more

Good stuff!


I only ended up with 3 photos I liked from my set, 1 being a pano:

Oh and I liked this one how it turned out too!

 

[Ozzie_urbex]

First of all, thanks has to go out to Mffp for the tip-off on entry into the building itself, although it seems that a potential entry I had discovered probably works too. But never mind, his way is much easier (most of the time)!

This was over the course of two visits, the first being with Olz9181 and Robbiekhan and the second visit with zmaricz. As there's not been a report in a while since security was upped in the summer here's some information on the building shamelessly ripped from skyscrapernews.com:



The typical view inside the building. It's all been stripped completely as Zurich relocated their offices to Whiteley.

Not all that interesting...

However, the roof is where it's at.

Views for miles around Portsmouth.

Olz and Robbie doing their thing.

A train leaving Portsmouth & Southsea Station.

Commercial Road.
View attachment 650376

I'm sure some of the other guys will be along at some point to make their additions (and put my pics to shame).

Hi I'm planning on attempting this soon would u mind giving me some tips for getting in, cheers

 

[duckandcover]

Hi I'm planning on attempting this soon would u mind giving me some tips for getting in, cheers

Forget it, the whole site is being re developed so there is 24hr secca now