Amex House
A potted history 1977-1988
From the 1995 'My Brighton' exhibit
Brighton has been home to American Express for more than 25 years. Its European Operating Centre, Amex House in Edward Street, opened in 1977. But Amex first came to Brighton in 1967 when it moved into 154 Edward Street, paying a rent of 15s (75p) a square foot.
Building Amex House
Amex House began with a hole more that 50 feet deep. 100,000 tons of chalk had to be excavated to create it, and some 2,000 tons of steel were used to reinforce the eight-storey structure. 45,000 tons of concrete were set and the whole process took three years.
The 'wedding cake'
Known as the 'wedding cake', because of its white multi-tiered form, Amex House was crowned with a satellite dish in 1988; just one of the communications routes used by the company which has one of the largest and most complex private telecommunications networks in the world.
This page was added on 22/03/2006.