Last few weeks for former London HQ...

Beagle House was originally built for Overseas Containers Limited (OCL) with the HQ staff relocating from various offices on and around Bevis Marks on what was considered at the time the edge of the City of London. The site on the junction of Braham Street and Leham Street which was then known as Gardiner's Corner was selected 1971 with the chosen architects for the nine storey building being Richard Seifert & Partners, a firm which also worked on Centre Point and the NatWest Tower. The construction work was completed in time for Beagle House to be occupied in June 1974.

The name taken for the building is thought to have come from a former Brown & Eagle warehouse which known as 'Beagle House' which was originally on the same site.

The 'Braham Street, London E1 8EP' shipping HQ building, which was designed to accommodate 900 staff, was originally on a 99 year lease with Town & City Properties which in turn had a 999 year lease from Hambro Life who owned the freehold. The chairman of Town & City Properties at this time was Jeffrey Sterling (later Sir Jeffrey then Lord Sterling) who of course became P&O group chairman a few years later.

Prior to the merger with Nedlloyd Lines (following which the HQ function was split between London and Rotterdam) Beagle House housed the European trade divisions (FET, ANZ, etc.), Fleet Management Division (FMD), International Container Management (ICM), the Information Technology Division (ITD), Group Commercial and other key functions such as HR (probably then known as 'Personnel'!) and the Company Secretary's Office. The boardroom was on the 8th floor as was the senior management dining room (closed down along with the ground floor staff bar following the appointment of Tim Harris as chairman). A single storey extension was built to the west for the staff restaurant and as numbers grew Central House just a short walk away on the other side of Camperdown Street was secured to provide additional office space.