Why is there a large steel box on the Elephant and Castle roundabout?

The large steel box on the Elephant and Castle roundabout is a Cold War-era memorial to scientific pioneer Michael Faraday and was once designed to shine with violet light.

The Michael Faraday memorial and substation is a grade II listed sculpture to commemorate the chemist and physicist Michael Faraday (1791-1867), who lived locally for the first five years of his life.

It serves an important function and houses a London Underground electrical substation, which is needed to power the Northern and Bakerloo lines at the neighbouring Tube station.

The memorial was designed by architect Rodney Gordon and built in 1961 to celebrate Michael Faraday's groundbreaking work in electricity and magnetism. Gordon had just graduated from the Architectural Association School.

https://youtu.be/RKu1__F3TFs

But, the final steel design came after a number of intriguing but ultimately abandoned proposals.

Gordon originally designed an inverted glass pyramid which would allow drivers and pedestrians to see the inner workings of the substation.

The glass exterior would have allowed a flashing violet light, created from mercury rectifiers.

However, worried about vandalism and distracting passing motorists on the busy gyratory, the design was scrapped. The chosen design, a stainless steel box, was even originally planned to float over a moat.

Faraday's local connections are remembered on a plaque embedded on the floor, which reads: “This stainless steel sculpture commemorates Michael Faraday (1791-1867) English chemist and physicist know for his research into electricity and magnetism who lived locally.”

Faraday's parents moved to Elephant and Castle from Westmoreland in the North West of England in 1786. They lived in Newington Butts, an area that included what is now Elephant and Castle, until 1796, when Faraday was five.

https://southwarknews.co.uk/history/history-plus/newington-butts-from-medieval-village-niwetun-to-home-to-londons-tallest-building-and-the-uks-first-teddy-bears/

Faraday invented the electric motor, transformer and generator. The applications of his discoveries were immense, from trains and computers, to satellites and mobile phones. Anything electrical uses the principles that Faraday discovered.

The memorial was given Grade II listed status in June 1996, but plans in the early 2000s to redevelop the Elephant and Castle roundabout meant it was at risk of being moved.

The structure was also inaccessible to the public for many years, who couldn't get to it safely in the middle of the roundabout.

Rodney Gordon returned his attention to the structure he created fifty years later. In a YouTube video, published in 2007, Rodney said: "My first job was to work on a new project for the Elephant and Castle I designed it in 1958 to 1959 and now I've come back to dealing with it at the end of my career.

"It is very fashionable to kick your architects who designed in the 60s and say 'look at the terrible things they built' but things move so fast these days, you're out of fashion within a couple of years.

"English Heritage have decided it was an iconic building of sorts, but the trouble is people didn't know what it was and they need the site for the new development and they have to bring it down."

Rodney Gordon was also responsible for the now demolished Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth and the Trinity Centre, Gateshead, also demolished.

Instead of being moved to a new site near Walworth Road, the memorial stayed put after the development project changed their plans to keep the roundabout.

Last year, campaigners from the C20 Society, a group protecting modern architecture, urged that the memorial was "looking in need of some care and conservation."