Richard Seifert
Richard Seifert (born Reubin Seifert; 25 November 1910 – 26 October 2001) was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing London's NatWest Tower (now officially named Tower 42), once the tallest building in the United Kingdom, and Centre Point. His eponymously named practice – R. Seifert and Partners (later the R. Seifert Company and Partnership) was at its most prolific in the 1960s and 1970s, responsible for many major office buildings in Central London as well as large urban regeneration projects in other major British cities.
Also recorded as Robin Seifert · Reubin Seifert
Richard Seifert
CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Richard Seifert
- Born
- 25 November 1910
- Birthplace
- Zürich, Switzerland
- Died
- 26 October 2001
- Nationality
- United Kingdom · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · Switzerland
- Occupation
- architect
- Education
- University College London · Central Foundation Boys' School
- Known for
- Tower 42 · Centre Point · Euston Station
- Languages
- English
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Documentary connections
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 1086823737 · wikidata · Q128409 · wikipedia · Richard Seifert
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Richard Seifert • Born — 25 November 1910 • Birthplace — Zürich, Switzerland • Died — 26 October 2001 • Practice — R. Seifert and Partners • Significant Buildings — NatWest Tower (now Tower 42) Centre Point Gateway House Alpha Tower South Bank Tower More listed below • Illustration — Gateway House, Manchester (1969). • Illustration — Tower 42, London (1980).
Biography
Biography
Seifert was born to a Swiss family and came to London when young. He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School and subsequently obtained a scholarship to the Bartlett School of Architecture, graduating in 1933. Seifert served in the Royal Engineers during World War II. Seifert and his company were responsible for more London buildings than Sir Christopher Wren and designed more than 500 office blocks across the UK and Europe. National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C467/05) with Richard Seifert in 1996 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.
London and suburbs
London and suburbs
• 90 Long Acre, Westminster • Barnet House, High Road, Totteridge and Whetstone • Blackfriars Station, Queen Victoria Street, City of London (1977 design, building was redesigned in 2012) • Beagle House, Tower Hamlets • Britannia Hotel (The Biltmore, Mayfair Hotel), Grosvenor Square, Mayfair • Centre Point, New Oxford Street, Camden • Corinthian House, Lansdowne Road, Croydon • Drapers Gardens, Throgmorton Avenue, City of London (demolished) • Essoldo Paddington Cinema, Great Western Road, Westminster (demolished) • Euston Station, Eversholt Street, Camden • Farryner House, Monument Street, City of London • Goodhart Place, Horseferry Road, Limehouse • Kensington Forum (built as Penta hotel), Cromwell Road, Kensington • Kings Mall, King Street, Hammersmith 1980 • Kellogg House, Baker Street, Westminster • Limebank House, Gracechurch Street, City of London (demolished) • London Metropole Hotel, Edgware Road, Westminster • New Printing House Square, Gray's Inn Road, Camden • New London Bridge House, 5 London Bridge Street, Southwark (demolished – site now occupied by The News Building) • No. 1 Croydon (the NLA Tower), Addiscombe Road, Croydon • One Kemble Street (Space House), off Kingsway, Camden • 1, 2 & 3 St John's Square, Finsbury (now known as Gate House, 1 St John's Square, Clerkenwell, Islington) • Riverside Baths, Erith, Kent (demolished) • Royal Lancaster Hotel, Lancaster Gate, W2. (1967) (Originally intended to be the offices of the Rank Organisation) • Sobell Leisure Centre, Islington (1973) • South Bank Tower, Stamford Street, Southwark • The Pirate Castle, Oval Road, Camden Town, North London • Tolworth Tower, Ewell Road, Tolworth, Kingston upon Thames • Tower 42, Bishopsgate, City of London • Wembley Conference Centre, Wembley, Middlesex • Windsor House, London, Victoria Street • Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington
Outside London
Outside London
• Illustration — The Anderston Centre, Glasgow (1972). • Illustration — Sussex Heights apartment block, Brighton (1968). • Alpha Tower, Birmingham • Anderston Centre, Glasgow (partly demolished 2005-08) • Concourse House, Liverpool (demolished 2009) • Elmbank Gardens, Glasgow (partly demolished 2026) • Heron House, Glasgow • Hilton House, Hilton Street, Manchester • Gateway House, Piccadilly Approach, Manchester (1969) • Metropole Hotel, Birmingham • Sussex Heights, Brighton • Hexagon Tower, Manchester
Identity
Identity
Richard Seifert is recorded as having studied at University College London and Central Foundation Boys' School.

The Anderston Cross Commercial Centre, Anderston, Glasgow, Scotland. Designed by Richard Seifert (1967-73)
RapidAssistant

The Charing Cross Complex (Elmbank Gardens), Charing Cross, Glasgow, Scotland. Richard Seifert Co Partnership 1969-75
RapidAssistant
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1910
Richard Seifert born at Zurich.
2001
Richard Seifert died at London.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Zurich.
Birth place
London.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Seifert, Richard [formerly Rubin] (1910–2001), architect, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2005
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2005
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1086823737, Richard Seifert & co. (Ahrensburg).
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q128409: Richard Seifert
General reference · Wikidata
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Richard Seifert, revision 1343075171 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Richard Seifert (obituary). The Guardian. 29 October 2001.
- 2.Central Foundation Boys' School. Alumni. 2013.
- 3.William D. Rubinstein. The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan. 890–. 22 February 2011. 978-0-230-30466-6.
- 4.National Life Stories, 'Seifert, Richard (1 of 8) National Life Stories Collection: Architects' Lives', The British Library Board, 1996. Retrieved 10 April 2018
- 5.Gardiner, Joey. Developer withdraws plans for £1bn Kensington tower scheme. Building. 2021-03-23.
- 6.H.M. Land Registry Title number LN49048, drawing numbers 376.8 to 376.15 & 376.28, plans to the deed of 30 January 1963 made between W. McQueen & Co Ltd, Arrol Investment Company Limited and Cornersites (Investments) Limited
- 7.Meta Title.
- 8.Meta Title. www.better.org.uk.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Seifert, Richard [formerly Rubin] (1910–2001), architect, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2005Crossref registry
Institutional witnessauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1086823737, Richard Seifert & co. (Ahrensburg).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessauthority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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