London University's Senate House is a building that really startled me when I discovered it. It looks to me as if it would be happier in New York - it's trying its damnedest to be a skyscraper, and its stark white stone glares balefully. I didn't expect it here, among brick Georgian terraces with their restrained style.
The Art Deco design is the work of Charles Holden,who struck a blow against the vaguely classical styles then prevailing with his bold modernist design. Construction began in 1932, and it took five years to build. Despite its huge size, it was apparently scaled down from the original plans!
It was the second tallest building in London when it was built - Holden's own Broadway House was the tallest. While its style in undeniably modern, in the sloping outline (compare, say, Bankside power station - not Tate Modern), the lack of detailing and plainness, it's also got a classical feel to its rhythms - Holden was asked to create architecture that would not become dated with the passing years, and I reckon he succeeded.
Such is the character of this immense building that there are all sorts of myths about it. It is actually true, apparently, that Oswald Moseley wanted to house a Fascist government in it (fortunately, British voters were too smart to elect him); it's probably a myth that Hitler had identified it as the centre for his own government of a conquered Britain. It's said to have inspired the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984, and has appared in numerous films including Richard III and Batman.