Minories Car Park

Minories Car Park 1 Shorter St, London E1 8LP Constructed: 1968–69 / Opened 1969 Spaces: Originally 601 spaces / currently 265 public spaces Visited: December 2025 Constructed between 1968 and 1969 for the City of London, Minories Car Park belongs to a period when new roads, servicing networks, and off-street parking were seen as essential to the modern city. Designed by E. G. Chandler, its exposed concrete frame, textured panels, and fluted curtain wall give straightforward parking infrastructure an unexpectedly monumental presence. Most curious is the surface treatment of the curtain wall, which Chandler based on the Elephant House at London Zoo, built between 1962 and 1965 — a strange and brilliant architectural echo that links municipal carchitecture in the City with the tactile concrete language of post-war zoo design.