OXO Tower, London

OXO Tower viewed from the north bank of the Thames

OXO Tower from upstream, with Sea Containers House beyond

The OXO Tower is a building with a prominent tower on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The building currently has a set of bijou arts and crafts shops on the ground and first floors. A well-known restaurant is located on the 8th floor, which is the roof top level of the main building. The second to 7th floors contain 78 residential apartments.^[1]

Location[link]

The OXO Tower is located towards the eastern end of London's South Bank cultural area, and is within the London Borough of Southwark. A continuous river-side walkway, actually part of the Thames Path, passes in front of and below the building, and links it with other river-side attractions such as the Festival Hall, the National Theatre, the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre.

The building is flanked on the upstream, western side by Bernie Spain Gardens and Gabriel's Wharf market place, and to the east by Sea Containers House.

History[link]

The building was originally constructed as a power station for the Post Office, built towards the end of the 19th century. It was subsequently acquired by the Liebig Extract of Meat Company, manufacturers of Oxo beef stock cubes, for conversion into a cold store.^[2][3]

The building was largely rebuilt to an Art Deco design by company architect Albert Moore between 1928 and 1929. Much of the original power station was demolished, but the river facing facade was retained and extended. Liebig wanted to include a tower featuring illuminated signs advertising the name of their product. When permission for the advertisements was refused, the tower was built with four sets of three vertically-aligned windows, each of which "coincidentally" happened to be in the shapes of a circle, a cross and a circle. Liebig and the building were eventually purchased by the Vestey Group.^[2][3]

In the late 1970s and into the 1980s there were several proposals to demolish the building and develop it and the adjacent Coin Street site, but these were met with strong local opposition and two planning inquiries were held. Although permission for redevelopment was granted, the support of the Greater London Council (GLC) finally resulted in the tower and adjoining land being sold to the GLC in 1984 for £2.7m—who sold the entire 13-acre (5.3 ha) site to the non-profit Coin Street Community Builders for just £750,000.

In the 1990s the tower was refurbished to a design by Liftschutz Davidson to include housing, a restaurant, shops and exhibition space. The tower won the Royal Fine Art Commission / BSkyB Building of the Year Award for Urban Regeneration in 1997, the RIBA Award for Architecture also in 1997, the Brick Development Association Award 1997, Civic Trust Award 1998 and The Waterfront Center USA Honor Award 2000.^[4]

See also[link]

• Tall buildings in London

References[link]

External links[link]

Coordinates: 51°30′30″N 0°06′31″W / 51.508272°N 0.108547°W / 51.508272; -0.108547

Cherry Healey (Cherry Kathleen Chadwyck-Healey, born 1980) is a British television presenter, frequently featuring in self-titled documentaries on the BBC, especially BBC Three.

Healey was born on 5 December 1980 and is descended from Chadwyck-Healey Baronets; her father Nicholas is a son of the 4th Baronet. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College until 2000.^[1]. She has a Degree in Drama Education / Drama for Social Change from Central School of Speech and Drama.

Best known for her work with light-hearted documentaries on BBC Three, including studies on drinking, childbirth, body issues, dating, and money,^[2] she frequently relates documentaries to her own life both during the programmes and on her blog on the BBC website.^[3] She presented Britain's Favourite Supermarket Foods on BBC One on 15 February 2012.

Healey has a daughter Coco (born 2009), and married partner Rory Allen in summer 2010.^[4]

Filmography[link]

• Britain's Favourite Supermarket Foods (2012)
• Cherry Healey: Like A Virgin (2012)
• Cherry's Parenting Dilemmas (2011)
• Cherry's Body Dilemmas (2011)
• Cherry's Cash Dilemmas (2011)
• Cherry Healey: Magician's Assistant (2011)
• Is Breast Best? Cherry Healey Investigates (2011)
• Cherry Gets Married (2010)
• Cherry Goes Drinking (2010)
• Cherry Gets Pierced (2010)
• Cherry Goes Dating (2010)
• Cherry Has A Baby (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Personal website

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Clare Michelle Jane Solomon (born c. 1973) was the president of the University of London Union.

Solomon was born to Michael and Noreen Graham in Winchester, Hampshire.^[1] Her father served in the Royal Military Police before emigrating to New Zealand with the family. She later returned to England to give birth to a son, taking the name Solomon from the boy's father. She moved to London and married Mohammed Bazlur Rahman, setting up a café near King's Cross railway station. Solomon was raised Mormon and converted to Islam but is now a self-described Atheist.

Solomon joined the Socialist Workers Party in 2005, but was expelled in 2009 following an internal dispute.^[1] She is now affiliated with the Counterfire (organisation), "a network of activists who are Marxist, anti-capitalist, anti-war, anti-cuts while campaigning for equality and workers' rights."

Solomon began her degree BA Study of Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London when she was 31, becoming involved in student politics and holding several positions over the years. She has served as a ULU delegate at NUS conference, served on the steering committee for the NUS LGBT campaign until 2011,^[1] and served as President of ULU until March 2011, having been elected in 2010.^[2]

Solomon was outspoken during the 2010 UK student protests against the cuts to education, and was a vocal critic of National Union of Students leadership,^[3] calling for the removal of its president Aaron Porter.^[4] She appeared on the BBC's Newsnight programme alongside Porter and Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes.^[5] Solomon led the 24 November protest march against Parliament, and was one of twelve students invited to a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on the day the Browne Review was published.^[6] Following the passing of the parliamentary bill to increase fees, she called for students to "take the action up a notch" with "more vigorous occupations".^[7]

Solomon is a critic of Israeli policy on Palestine and has been criticised for allegedly antisemitic comments on Facebook, where she wrote, ‘I think you’ll also find that ALL religions have had their oppressors-some worse than others true, but to paint the picture that Jews have been persecuted all throughout history is one that has been fabricated in the last 100 or so years to justify the persecution of Palestinians." and added, 'To paint the picture that ALL Jews have always had to flee persecution is just plainly inaccurate.’^[8][9]

Solomon has denied that the statements were anti-Semitic and clarified her views stating 'This badly-worded comment was something that I wrote in haste on Facebook at a very busy period. I’m sorry for any misunderstandings caused by what I wrote.' and further added 'My position is that Jewish people have always been persecuted throughout history nowhere more than during the holocaust when 6 million were murdered by the Nazis. I am totally against anti-Semitism and any persecution and oppression of Jewish people as I am against the oppression people on the grounds of any race or religion.' ^[10] She says she was "responding to a comment on facebook that said we need Israel because Muslims have been persecuting the Jewish race all throughout history. And I was trying to say it's not true that Jews and Muslims can't live together – there are numerous instances, especially the Middle East, where Muslims and Jews and Christians and people of all faiths and non-faiths have lived together harmoniously.

On the 14th of March 2011, Verso Books published a book about the students protests edited by Solomon entitled Springtime: The New Student Rebellions.^[11] A number of positive reviews in papers such as The Guardian have been written.^[12][13]

On March 17 Solomon lost her attempt to be re-elected as the president of the University of London Union to Vratislav "Vraj" Domalip.^[14]

See also[link]

• University of London
• Counterfire (organisation)
• Verso Books

References[link]

External links[link]

• Solomon's Mindfield blog