Hannibal House

Hannibal House is an icon of 1960s office architecture positioned above the Elephant and Castle shopping centre in Southwark, south London.

Hannibal House
General information
Status	Complete
Construction started	1960
Completed	1965
Technical details
Floor count	16

Until 2005, the building housed various bodies and agencies of the Department of Health, including the Devices section of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the Medical Devices Agency until April 2003). It achieved some fame in hosting the enquiries into the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbie. Various training and religious organisations have since taken up offices. Although the building was expected to be demolished in 2012, it was announced in March 2007 that the British passport interview office for London would be based on the 9th and 10th floors. The interview office of the Identity and Passport Service opened to the public in September 2007.

In 1968 it housed the Government offices of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, Post Office Directorate. This Directorate was responsible for the design and construction of new P.O. projects. This included telephone exchanges and P.O. buildings. This included The Post Office Research Establishment at Martlesham Heath in Suffolk. Home office work was also carried out including building and modifications of prisons and large fire brigade projects. The Fire Brigade technical college at Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire was one of these. This Directorate during Government reorganisation in the early 1970s became part of The Directorate of the Environment (Public Service Agency) and moved to new office accommodation in Croydon (Apolo and Luner Houses)