The oxo tower is one of London’s most architecturally interesting buildings but is rarely mentioned in London tour guides. It was built in the early 20th century as a power station but in 1920 the building was purchased by leibling Meat factory, makers of OXO and underwent major structural changes. As part of these changes the architect proposed to display the word OXO in electric lights on the tower but was refused permission as this sort of advertising was not allowed at the time. The clever architect got round this set back by designing the windows in the tower to spell out the words so as light shone out from within the building the Word OXO could be seen.

Today the tower still lights up the grey south bank but is now home to shops and two restaurants which are definitely worth a visit if you are looking for somewhere a bit different to eat in London. The top floor restaurant bar and brasserie, owned by Harvey Nichols, offers excellent food and is glass fronted so many tables have an amazing view of the Thames and the City, meals cost about £50 excluding wine.

On the second floor is the Tamesa restaurant offering a cheaper alternative with meals for about 25 pounds…although i think its worth paying the extra just for the amazing environment that the top floor provides. Take a look at the OXO page on the Harvey Nichols website for more information on the menu, prices or how to make a booking.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 10:27 am and is filed under Attractions, Bars & Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.