Capital Designs

Founded as a sovereign Commonwealth in 1901, a dominion in the British Empire, Australia set out immediately to present itself to the world as a nation with a great future. This book relates the untold story of how Australia’s first diplomatic mission was conceived, designed and built. Its international showcase was to be Australia House, a splendid purpose-built building at the Aldwych in the very heart of London, the Imperial capital, and of world trade and prosperity. Commenced in 1913, Australia House was opened in 1918 while the Great War still raged. It is a story of ambitions and achievements – global, imperial, local and personal.

‘This meticulous and engaging study, remarkable for the depth and breadth of its scholarship, shows that the new Federation’s projection of its growing national pride and self-assurance via an imposing stone building was also part of the quest to make of London a city that fully expressed the ambition, achievement and grandeur of empire.’ Frank Bongiorno FRHistS FASSA, Professor of History, Australian National University

‘The story of the building [of Australia House] and the wider context of the Holburn to Strand improvements at Aldwych of which it formed part is here brilliantly told.’ David M. Walker, Dictionary of Scottish Architects