Centre Point

Overview

Centre Point is a 34-storey, 117-metre office tower at St Giles Circus in central London, built between 1963 and 1966 for property developer Harry Hyams by Wimpey Construction, to a design by George Marsh of R. Seifert and Partners.[1] Hyams, who had leased the site for 150 years, intended the whole building to be let to a single tenant at his asking rent and refused to divide it into smaller lettings; as a result the tower stood completely empty from completion until 1975 — about nine years — while property prices around it rose, earning it the nickname "London's Empty Skyscraper."[1] The vacancy, amid an acute London housing shortage, made Centre Point a public symbol of landlords profiting from withholding valuable land from use; the homelessness charity Centrepoint, founded in 1969, took its name partly in protest at the building being left empty, and housing campaigners occupied the tower for three days in January 1974.[1]

Georgist writers have used Centre Point as an illustration of speculative vacancy: an owner of a scarce, well-located site can rationally leave it idle rather than let it below the price they expect the market — and the site's rising capital value — to eventually bear, since holding costs on land are low and the option to wait can be worth more than developing or letting now. Fred Harrison discusses the case in The Power in the Land (1983) as part of his broader argument about land speculation and the 18-year land cycle (Ch. 6, Ch. 7).[2] After decades of office use — including 34 years as the Confederation of British Industry's headquarters — Centre Point was converted to residential flats between 2015 and 2018; even after conversion, observers have noted many units standing dark and unsold, prompting comparisons to earlier patterns of land monopoly and capital being parked in property rather than put to use.[1]

See Also

• Speculative Vacancy — the general concept this case illustrates
• Land Speculation — the broader dynamic of withholding land pending capital gains
• Land Monopoly — the underlying condition that makes withholding profitable
• The Power in the Land — Fred Harrison's book discussing the case
• Unearned Increment — the rising site value Hyams captured by waiting

Sources

1. "Centre Point," Wikipedia — used for construction dates, architect and developer, the 1966–1975 vacancy, the 1974 occupation, the Centrepoint charity's naming, and the 2015–2018 residential conversion (B-claim, general reference). Wikipedia
2. Fred Harrison (1983), The Power in the Land, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ch. 6 (p.79), Ch. 7 (pp.84–85) — discovery source; cited for the case's place in Harrison's land-speculation and land-cycle argument (C-claim: advocacy book; specific page content not independently re-verified here). See book page.