A history of the Old War Office Building

The Old War Office Building

The Old War Office Building Pre-1914

The original War Office on the south side of Pall Mall had, even in its earliest days, proved too small and inefficient.  It consisted not of a single building, but rather a number of adjoining houses linked by doorways in the partition walls; other elements of the staff were housed in other buildings, some distance away.  This had such an impact on staff numbers that in 1886, out of 958 officials in the War Office, 164 were employed as messengers.

So poor were the facilities, and the ill-health of its staff so well known, that a newspaper commented in the 1860’s that:

‘employment in the War Office, in consequence of the sickness and mortality attending it, should rank in point of danger at about the same level as an Ashantee campaign’

Even as late as the early 1900’s, the Directorate of Military Operations staff, which had to be based in Winchester House in St James’s Square, seemed to suffer frequently from what was know as “Winchester House sore throat”, thought to be the result of the vapours from a large cesspit over which it had been built.

The main 'marble' staircase in the centre of the west front

The 'dome' above the main staircase in the Old War Office Building seen from below

General agreement about the need for a new War Office building first led to proposals in the late 1850’s for its inclusion in government offices in Downing Street, then in the late 1860’s for a new building on Great George Street to house both the Admiralty and War Office.  Factional opposition in Parliament, as well as concerns over the status of the Commander-in-Chief vis a vis the Secretary of State, delayed matters further.  In the late 1870’s, an Embankment site was proposed but a financial crisis put an end to that scheme.  A new Admiralty and War Office on the existing Admiralty site in Whitehall was next suggested but was again stopped by Parliamentary opposition.

The subsequent extension to the existing Admiralty building in the 1890’s delayed a final decision on the future War Office site and not until 1896 was it agreed that a site east of Whitehall should be used.

Mr William Young FRIBA was the architect commissioned in 1898 by HM Office of Works to design the ‘new’ War Office.  Sadly, he died two years later, but the design was completed by his son, Clyde Young, and Sir John Taylor, consultant surveyor to HM Office of Works.

The building is of trapezium shape. This was dictated by the need to use all available space to maximise the accommodation, on a site surrounded by existing buildings.  Digging began in 1899, and in order to carry the weight of the building, a huge ‘tank’ with concrete walls and base up to 6 feet thick and 30 feet below the road level, was constructed.  The first brick was laid in September 1901 and when the building was completed in 1906 it had used some 26,000 tons of Portland stone and 3,000 tons of York stone, as well as 25 million bricks.  Using what was then called ‘Renaissance’ style (now called Edwardian Baroque’), Young designed the west Whitehall-facing front as the chief elevation.  The west and north fronts from the second floor upwards received a row of Ionic columns.  Along the roof were placed sculptured figures symbolising Peace and War, Truth and Justice, Fame and Victory and on top of each of the four corner towers a decorative dome was put in order to mask the irregularity of the building’s shape.

The second floor principal landing

Fireplace in the Haldane Suite

The Army Council room (1920)

The Secretary of State for Defence's office (2001)

The Main Entrance, Grand Hall and Staircase were placed in the centre of the west front, with the principal rooms on the second floor.  The Secretary of State for War occupied a suite above the main entrance (now known as the Haldane Suite) while the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State occupied the room across the main staircases.  The Chief of the General (later Imperial General) Staff, then Lt Gen Hon Sir Neville Gerald Lyttleton, initially had his office in a large room in the centre of the southern side.  The circular tower rooms at the corners were for other members of the Army Council and the Army Council Room was in the centre of the north side.  The more important rooms and office suites were decorated with great care, and a few were adorned with oak panelling.  Several fine marble fireplaces came from the various aristocratic residences occupied by the then ‘old’ War Office in Pall Mall, including Cumberland (formerly York) House and Buckingham House.  Two are attributed to well known sculptors, John Bacon RA and Thomas Carter, and all are over 200 years old.  A Parliamentary Answer in April 1910 gave the full cost of the ‘new’ War Office as £1,229,128.

Among the notable Secretaries of State for War to work in the building in its early years were Lord Haldane (1905-12), Mr Asquith 1914), Lord Kitchener (1914-16), Mr Lloyd-George (1916) and Winston Churchill (1919-21).  For the early part of his tenure, Churchill held the combined post of Secretary of State for War and Air before the posts were separated in February 1921.

With the outbreak of War in August 1914, the General Staff left to take up posts with the deployed Army in France and Flanders and many retired officers from the Reserve of Officers were re-employed to fill the now vacant War Office posts.

Sir Charles Callwell, on 5th August 1914 Colonel who had been on retired pay for seven years, took over as Director of Military Operations with the temporary rank of Major-General.

According to one visitor the War Office was a nightmare in those early days: it resembled Liverpool Street station on the evening of rainless Bank Holiday.  The numbers were swollen by the employment of Boy Scouts as messengers.  Callwell illustrated what he described as an excellent innovation, with the following story:

‘A day or two after joining I wanted to make the acquaintance of a colonel, who I found was under me in charge of a branch, a new hand like myself, but whose apartment nobody in the place could indicate.  A War Office messenger despatched to find him came back emptyhanded.  Another War Office messenger sent on the same errand on the morrow proved no more successful.  On the third day I summoned a boy scout into my presence – a very small one – and commanded him to find that colonel and not to come back without him.  In about ten minutes’ time the door was flung open and in walked the scout,  followed by one of the biggest sort of colonels. “I did not know what I had done or where I was being taken”, remarked the colonel, “but the boy made it quite clear that he wasn’t going to have any nonsense; so I thought it best to come quietly”’ ⁽¹⁾.

The continual increase in numbers throughout the War Office included several officers temporarily commissioned for their specialist knowledge.  One such was T E Lawrence, commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on 23rd October 1914 and employed in M04, the Geographical Section, to produce a large scale map of Sinai and a military guide to the region based on his extensive peacetime travels.

King Edward VII's coronation procession along Whitehall in front of the construction site of the War Office (1902)

The problem of accommodating further staff became acute and it was now that the flat roof of the War Office proved such a valuable feature.  On 9th October 1914 the Office of Works informed the Treasury that the space requirements of the War Office could best be met by the erection of an additional storey on the top of the War Office Building.  The fifth storey of wooden huts was soon completed and later provided with a layer of air raid protection nets to ward off bombs.  These huts were unofficially known as ‘Zeppelin Terrace’.

...accommodating further staff became acute the flat roof of the War
Office proved such a valuable feature...

As the demands for space grew, Government departments spread far and wide across London.  The National Liberal Club (just across Whitehall Court from the War Office) was requisitioned in September 1916 and became the ‘War Office Annexe’, and by January 1919 no fewer than 52 buildings in London were either wholly or partially occupied by the War Office’s staff, including over a dozen hotels.  Further temporary buildings were put up on the Victoria Gardens on the Embankment and became known as the ‘Embankment Annexe’.  Sir Sam Fay considered them

‘convenient and well lighted, better than similar accommodation in the War Office.  The corridors ran round monuments to William Tindale, Bartle Frere and Outram.  Few in the corridors knew that monuments to these illustrious Englishmen were encased within the building.’ ⁽²⁾

References:

⁽¹⁾ Major-General Sir C E Callwel, ‘Experiences of a Dug-Out’; London, Constable, 1920.
⁽²⁾ Sir Sam Fay, ‘The War Office at War’; London Hutchinson, 1937.

 Inter-War Years

Last Updated: 3 Mar 04