Peninsula Heights, an Overview

Ever played six degrees of Kevin Bacon with a building?

Peninsula Heights, an elegant but unassuming building on the Albert Embankment is a great place to start. With resident’s whose colourful lifestyles more than make up for the blank façade of this redeveloped office block, Peninsula Heights is a wonderfully ‘connected building’ and is situated arguably in one of the best plots along the river Thames.

It’s 38 apartments is spread over 15 floors offering exceptionally spacious accommodation and boasts some of the best views of London’s most Iconic landmark, the Houses of Parliament which we will discover in the History of Peninsula Heights that we already have a link to film star Kevin Bacon…

A History of Peninsula Heights

Built in 1964 by Oscar Garry & Partners Architects, Alembic House as Peninsula Heights was then known, was the UK offices of the United Nations Association. Rumour has it that Great Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service MI6 was also once based there though no real evidence can be found of this. (Though to the conspiratorially minded the lack of evidence may be proof enough!) Such rumours however sound almost too cosy when you add in the fact that the music composer John Barry, most famous for his James Bond theme tune and film scores, actually lived in the penthouse.

Without dates being readily available the implication is that Barry lived in the penthouse while the rest of the building remained an office block. This does have a ring of truth about it as Barry’s record company Decca, was at the time also situated on Albert Embankment at Decca House.

It was not until 1996 when developers Regalia, converted Alembic House into luxury apartments and renamed the building Peninsula Heights, (somewhat inexplicably as there is no peninsula?!) It is then believed that Bernie Eccleston, Formula One promoter, owned the penthouse before selling it on to famous author, once mayoral hopefully but ultimately disgraced Tory peer, Jeffery Archer.

If ever a person embodied the English ideal of a cad or bounder, who nonetheless remains endearing and bounces back despite serving time at Her Majesty’s pleasure then Jeffery Archer is that man. In a scandal that involved insider dealing, call girls and cover ups, Archers downfall was well deserved but the British sense of fair play mixed with prurient curiosity meant Archers prison biographies and subsequent west end musical kept him off his uppers.

But what of Kevin Bacon?

Well, Both Jeffery Archer and John Barry could lead us to him within three steps but first it is worth taking a detour to find out about living and investing in Peninsula Heights.

Living & Investing In Peninsula Heights

Developed by Regalia in 1996, Architect Guy Johnson of T.P. Bennett architects oversaw the project. T.P. Bennett now based in Manchester were once located just over the river from Peninsula Heights and were in fact responsible for the former Royal Doulton factory, just behind Peninsula Heights. In more recent times T.P. Bennett have continued to work with eponymous British brands such as Burberry, having designed a number of their Middle Eastern Stores.

Similarly, while Peninsula Heights attracts buyers from all over the globe it is perhaps the British connections that have established its popularity. Featured in many British films (look out for it in the original Italian Job) the location and river views that Peninsula Heights offers makes for a classic London apartment block.

However, if Jeffery Archer epitomised the caddish charm of white collar crime and John Barry set the score to England’s most famous spy. It was Greg Hutchings, another Peninsula Heights resident that unfortunately showed the darker side of corporate greed and megalomaniac excess. But while Hutchings later years ended in intrigue and tragedy, his chairmanship of Tomkin Conglomerates saw him preside over some of Britain’s most famous and ‘English’ brand names including Hovis Bread and Mr Kipling.

Just as quintessentially English was singer and musician, Tommy Steele. Again, a previous resident of Peninsula Heights and like Barry was signed to the Decca label.

But what of Kevin Bacon?

Well, by looking at Peninsula Heights, SE1 and beyond, we see just how close the link to Bacon is…

Peninsula Heights & Beyond

Peninsula Heights sits at the Vauxhall Bridge end of Albert Embankment. The embankment built in the late 1800’s and devised by renowned engineer Joseph Bazalgette was designed to increase the flow of the Thames, narrow its banks and to drain the marshes that made up much of South London thereby allowing it to become a successfully commercial and industrial area. A short distance further up the embankment is Lambeth Bridge and it is about these two bridges that singer/songwriter Julie Driscoll wrote the aptly named; ‘Vauxhall to Lambeth Bridge’ featured on the Album Streetnoise.

Driscoll was regarded at the time as part of the musical genre that influenced the Psychedelic movement. Certainly her most famous song; Wheels on Fire, (made even more famous by its use on the hit comedy series Absolutely Fabulous,) was considered highly psychedelic with its woozy anthemic chorus.

Psychedelic or not, ‘fire’ seems to be a common theme in the 60’s & 70’s with Driscoll also recording a cover of The Doors; Light my Fire. Likewise The Animals did a cover of Ring of Fire, first made famous by Johnny Cash. As it happens, Zoot Money who played keyboard in The Animals also starred in the film Popdown with Julie Driscoll. Both of whom have appeared in a number of other films and TV shows that then connect via fellow actors and musicians to Kevin Bacon (Supergirl being one of them).

Kevin Bacon also starred in Criminal Law, featuring Joe Don Baker who was in the Bond film, The Living Daylights. The music score to the living Daylights was by John Barry, who once lived in the same penthouse apartment as Jeffery Archer, who was famous for hosting his Shepherd’s Pie and Krug parties overlooking the river Thames and the Houses of Parliament in Peninsula Heights.

There is no record of Kevin Bacon having ever attended one of Archer’s parties.