Will the last person to leave switch off the light, end of an era Amex House

[cheshunt seagull]

Worked in the kitchen there in 1978. I have a crystal clear memory of talking about the visit of Spurs the next day whilst cleaning a pile of trays. I worked for the Manpower Agency at the time and Amex was always considered the best place to be sent (after the Whitbread depot in Lancing) because you got well fed and the work was a lot easier than at local factories like Saft and Roberts Smoothedge.

 

[Triggaaar]

A decision has to be be made whether to refurb or rebuild. It's usually only after approx 90 years that the new build is economically advantageous. I think it is down to the fact that incorporating hi-tech equipment into "old" buildings is very costly.

What sort of hi-tech equipment could a building like that need? A bit of air-con, and some computer cables and electricity.

 

[surrey jim]

What sort of hi-tech equipment could a building like that need? A bit of air-con, and some computer cables and electricity.

WIFI throughout, all desks with multiple screens / video telepresence rooms

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

What sort of hi-tech equipment could a building like that need? A bit of air-con, and some computer cables and electricity.

It's usually to do with floor to ceiling heights, so that false floors and ceilings can be incorporated to carry the cabling, air-con and sprinkler systems. With Amex, there will be a lot of server rooms.

 

[dazzer6666]

WIFI throughout, all desks with multiple screens / video telepresence rooms

....and following the latest corporate trends, wanky 'pods', chill-out areas, purple sofas, walls you can write on and the like. Still no fecking printer that works though obviously

 

[mikeyjh]

WIFI throughout, all desks with multiple screens / video telepresence rooms

All of which are already in AH, to be fair

 

[Triggaaar]

WIFI throughout, all desks with multiple screens / video telepresence rooms

That's just electricity and cat 5/6. Wifi means plugging a few of wifi access points in. Multiple screen desks just means more electricity - is that really difficult?

It's usually to do with floor to ceiling heights, so that false floors and ceilings can be incorporated to carry the cabling, air-con and sprinkler systems. With Amex, there will be a lot of server rooms.

Any idea what Amex House was missing?

 

[daveinprague]

Spent 10 years on the 5th floor in the communications center there. Used to love the comm center football matches in the center on night shifts.

Was on shift with NSC member who we have lost now, the famous Martyn Blyth

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Any idea what Amex House was missing?

No idea, but M&E, Fire Protection and IT installations have changed dramatically over the last 40 years. Amex would want state of the art, which is difficult to incorporate into an "old" building. Not impossible, but difficult. They must have done the sums.

 

[mikeyjh]

That's just electricity and cat 5/6. Wifi means plugging a few of wifi access points in. Multiple screen desks just means more electricity - is that really difficult?

Any idea what Amex House was missing?

A roof?

Seriously, it was all down to the cost of dealing with asbestos. The place has everything technology wise but can't be economically refurbished I guess.

 

[Triggaaar]

No idea, but M&E, Fire Protection and IT installations have changed dramatically over the last 40 years. Amex would want state of the art, which is difficult to incorporate into an "old" building. Not impossible, but difficult. They must have done the sums.

A roof?

Seriously, it was all down to the cost of dealing with asbestos. The place has everything technology wise but can't be economically refurbished I guess.

Makes more sense if it was to do with asbestos, and wanting it to look good inside etc. IT installations may have changed a lot since 40 years ago, but there's not much you can't do with Ethernet cable, which will have been there for years.

 

[spongy]

The place was basically built with asbestos so financially unviable to modernise and re-fit.

I did a couple of data cabling jobs in there and cable routing was a flipping nightmare. They would have been easy jobs if I could have just drilled a few holes in places but the asbeslos put a stop to it all. Data cabling has changed so much over since the late 80's early 90's. In fact here in the UK we are lagging behind everywhere else. Especially Germany. When I left the industry 5 years ago I was still installing cat5e into new builds. Cat6 was becoming more popular and cat6a for people trying to future proof and had money to spend. Whilst in Germany cat7 is normal and they were starting to develop cat8 which are gigabyte cables. Not 100mb. It means the size of cables is getting bigger and they don't fit into standard/old trunking so everything has to be re designed and re routed. Not surprised they thought better of it.

 

[Razi]

Spent 10 years on the 5th floor in the communications center there. Used to love the comm center football matches in the center on night shifts.

Was on shift with NSC member who we have lost now, the famous Martyn Blyth

Ah, hadn't heard that Martyn Blyth had passed away? I used to work on the 5th floor from 1998-2003 doing various bits in IT, remember watching some of the Japan/South Korea World Cup in the comms centre (along with Ronaldinho's winner against us whilst in the S&S club).

 

[The Birdman]

Ah, hadn't heard that Martyn Blyth had passed away? I used to work on the 5th floor from 1998-2003 doing various bits in IT, remember watching some of the Japan/South Korea World Cup in the comms centre (along with Ronaldinho's winner against us whilst in the S&S club).

Martin worked fof Worcester Valves in Haywards Heath which was in Burrell Road he then joind Amex he was oftern seen in the Nizam and on some occasions he would go back for another Curry same day with his best mate CT God bless Martin a great friend and fellow Brighton Fan still see his Daughter around.

 

[Fungus]

'Asbestos riddled', apparantly.

Yes, my step-father worked on the construction, and died a few years ago of mesothelioma.

 

[daveinprague]

The place was basically built with asbestos so financially unviable to modernise and re-fit.

I did a couple of data cabling jobs in there and cable routing was a flipping nightmare. They would have been easy jobs if I could have just drilled a few holes in places but the asbeslos put a stop to it all. Data cabling has changed so much over since the late 80's early 90's. In fact here in the UK we are lagging behind everywhere else. Especially Germany. When I left the industry 5 years ago I was still installing cat5e into new builds. Cat6 was becoming more popular and cat6a for people trying to future proof and had money to spend. Whilst in Germany cat7 is normal and they were starting to develop cat8 which are gigabyte cables. Not 100mb. It means the size of cables is getting bigger and they don't fit into standard/old trunking so everything has to be re designed and re routed. Not surprised they thought better of it.

Its moved on for sure. I remember us all standing around the modem rack staring in awe at a 19.2 modem !

 

[happypig]

I worked there from 1979 to 1982, 6th floor. Made some good friends, some of whom I still see and had some of the best times of my life.
We had a bloke turn up to be our manager who wanted to do something to make himself stand out so one day he said (in the pub probably) "how can we save money on overtime ?" - we were very busy in the summer and, despite getting some temps in, often had to book an hour or so overtime.
Next day I went into his office and suggested that, instead of booking overtime, we worked on when needed but, in the winter when volumes were low, if we finished early we could go home. he thought it a marvellous idea so for the rest of the summer we worked on without OT but by working a bit faster, rarely stayed more than 15 minutes. Once the levels died down, we started finishing early and going home; He put a stop to it after Christmas, remarking "I've been ****ing hoodwinked" as we were never there past 2 o clock for the best part of 5 months.

 

[Barham's tash]

That used to be the HQ for Centurion card. Anyone who thought Amex House was bad, that place was 100x worse!

Had an interview there once and remember that during the interview i'd pretty much made up my mind that I wouldn't take the job on the basis of not being able to stomach that building.

 

[desprateseagull]

According to the planning permission, it's supposed to revert to public space - I reckon flats within 3 years......

flats and small business units, according to someone i spoke to while at a job interview, in the new Amex building.. Nice earner for whoever gets the demolition contract.

I bagsy the flagpole, on eBay..

 

[desprateseagull]

After five years (4 at Amex House, 1 at Gatwick), I just had to get out- it slowly drains your soul.

Walking around the new building, I saw no one really happy there. All about the numbers.