Cleopatra's Kiosk

Cleopatra's Kiosk is a small building and shop, on the Victoria Embankment, London, under the Hungerford Bridge.

To enable Commander Coakley to earn a living after the war the Port of London Authority (PLA) rented him a small piece of land on the Victoria Embankment.

[1] In 1960 Coakley wished to retire and contacted one of his relatives, Kate Stanton, to enquire if she would be willing to run the kiosk for him.

[2] To help construction of the Golden Jubilee pedestrian Bridge (Hungerford Bridge) Westminster City Council at first proposed that the kiosk should be removed and issued a compulsory purchase order[2] but later agreed that the kiosk would be moved to a nearby temporary location to allow the business to continue whilst the footbridge construction works were in progress.

[1] Following an international architectural design competition held in 2003 by RIBA Competitions, in which over 200 of the world's leading architects competed, the old kiosk was replaced by a new highly modernistic one designed by the Italian firm Bianchini e Lusiardi associati with the work projected to take up to five years.