Remembering SMBP and BP Oil Hemel Hempstead: Hemel Lines Up to Welcome It's New Arrivals...

...biggest-ever spruce up campaign under way.

The Hemel of today (1982), with the shape of BP House following that original railway line.

To some it is the 'serpent,' to others the `concertina', and to those in the know, its shapely lines owe their origins to a railway track laid in 1874.

But to more and more BP Oil people, it has become their daily place of work.

BP House, Hemel Hempstead, is the official address. Sir Robert McAlpine in 1963, the architects were asked to produce a building which would provide a gateway to the town centre, just as the old Hemel to Redbourn railway track had done before.

Their concrete-and-glass structure has done just that. Its tower block rises above the skyline, and its main building curves its way along the line of the old Midland Railway track spanning a river and a main road on the way.

Original

In the early days. Shell-Mcx and BP were one of the building's original tenants, establishing their Southern Computer Centre in Hemel as a sister to the similar complex at Wythenshawe, near Manchester.

Brand separation in the '70s gave BP Oil sole control of the Hemel computer centre and since then, the BP share of the building has gradually crept up to the point where BP I louse. Hemel Hempstead has become in the eyes of many a virtual 'parallel head office' to BP House, Victoria.

Since June this year, over 100 employees have made the move out of London and into the leafier surroundings of Hemel. The Field Office of Retail and Commercial marketers now reside in Hemel's tower block, as do Purchasing and — most recent of all — Financial Accounting Branch and Personnel Records.

They have arrived to find Hemel in the midst of its biggest-ever 'spruce up' programme. The building and its furnishings arc, in the words of Estates man Ray Power, being "jolted into the '80s."

What this means is rather more than a new carpet here, a different desk there. For Hemel — as befits its computerised origins — is beginning to offer a glimpse of the office of the future.

Rather than sitting in diminutive individual offices, Hemel’s new arrivals are finding themselves surrounded by the restrained efficiency of an ultra-modern system of 'screen related work-stations.'

Privacy

Ray Power. the man charged with responsibility for the office furnishings, is quick to dispel any similarity between this and 'open plan' offices, where desks and telephones wcrc simply arran*ed in serried ranks with no division between. Hemel's new offices are based on fabric-covered screens which provide privacy without claustrophobia. and each desk has its own filing cabinets above and below the working level.

"We are trying to give people the environment within which they can work well —and happily," explained Ray.

"People who need to work closely with others arc grouped together, but we have arranged things so that virtually everybody gets a _.good .iew out of the windows.'

The manufacturers of the new furniture in fact had to modify their designs slightly to suit liemel's needs. Where each screen adjoins a window, it is given a 'BP Wing' — a short panel at right angles to the main run which cuts off any disconcerting signs of movement from behind, but still gives a view over the Hertfordshire town and the countryside beyond.

It is a small detail appreciated by people such as David Wright. who moved from Knightsbridge to Hemel as sales assistant to National's Eastern Area Manager.

"Although we are all relatively close together, the screens do give you enough privacy — and that view out is splendid." said David.

"All round I think the office here is excellent, and just look at the carpet!"

Trepidation

Another newcomer, senior sales assistant Jean Dixon, who works in Commercial's Indirect department, admitted to a certain degree of trepidation when she heard she was to move from Central London to Hemel.

"But it's better than I thought," she said.

"It's a very nice building in a good shopping centre. The restaurant is fine — and it has a bar. On top of that, I can be at work in 35 minutes without struggling through traffic jams."

Masterminding the radical changes to the fabric of BP House in Hemel is Estates Services manager Trevor Jones. lie and his team of 10 colleagues are running the building from its basement stores to the top of the tower block. And they have more plans in store to bring a new look to the building which now houses more than 650 BP men and women.

"We are virtually going to gut it completely and start again, putting new cladding and windows on the outside to improve the energy efficiency of the building. and making more efficient use of the office space inside." he explained.

Biggest

The biggest single project under way at Hemel is related to the building's original use - - as a computer centre.

Architect Graham WeatherIey, whose own office is in Hemel's tower block, has designed a new computer suite which wraps itself round the west wing of the original building. Now in the final stages of construction, this £3.25-million development will provide air-conditioned surroundings for new Univac mainframe computers and the staff of the Computing and Communications Division who will operate them, and make much more efficient use of the space available.

"It is a three-storey extension on a split level, which will have the main computer suite, an observation room which will let people sec the computers operating, and a reception area at the lower level." Graham explained.

Built over the dried-up bed of the diverted River Gade, the new computer suite sits on piles driven I8-metres into the ground. Its floor has been leveled with a laser beam, and voids below the floor and above the ceiling will house the complex air-conditioning ducting and wiring system.

Big though this project is. it is just one of a series of updates which started almost as soon as the original building was completed nearly 20 years ago.

"There has been more or less continuous building work and upgrading," said Trevor Jones.

"The existing computer suite has been modernised twice, the restaurant and social areas have been upgraded, and we have recently filled in two balconies at the top of the tower block to create more office space."

Although the face of Hemel is changing fast, there are some who remember it from the early days:

Two such are Mike Hancock. Computer and Communications Manager, who was then Chief Programmer. and Systems' Alan Fowler. who were both among the first 'arrivals' at what was then called Hempstead House.

"In those early days conditions were far from ideal," said Alan. "Although the outside shell of the building was completed the inside certainly wasn't and it was rather like working in the middle of a building site!"