Oil giant’s riverside office now part of the river
By Kelly Fiveash Get more from this author
Posted in IT Director, 19th November 2010 12:44 GMT
Royal Dutch Shell’s London headquarters has been shuttered since Monday (15 November) after the River Thames decided to pour into the iconic office building.
The Register understands that the oil giant’s Shell Centre, which stands on Londons South Bank in Waterloo, is awash with water from the River Thames, scuppering assorted building facilities including IT systems housed in the basement.
The building is famed for using water from the River Thames for cooling purposes, and it is thought this is the cause of the deluge.
However, various spokespeople in London and The Hague, where Shells other major office is located, confirmed the flood, but refused to say whether it had affected IT systems specifically.
Theres too much water, exclaimed a Shell spokeswoman, who went on to tell El Reg that the firms London server room was not necessarily located in the basement.
They [Shell in London] wont tell us [Shell in The Hague], she said, before weirdly adding: We dont give names when interviewed.
Worse still, there are uncorroborated reports that the buildings lifts are under siege from some shifty-looking Cockney eels.
We asked a security guard at the Shell Centre, which opened its doors in 1963, about the slippery river creature problem.
[Laughs] I dont know anything about that, he said.
Meanwhile, Shell has issued several statements over the past few days about the flood.
We can confirm that on Monday evening (15 November) a leak occurred in the basement of Shell Centre, it said on Tuesday.
The leak has been stopped. However our central heating system has been affected so Shell Centre is temporarily closed. This closure does not affect our business operations.
The company has told staff based in Waterloo to enact their “business continuity plans”. In practice, this has meant Shell’s employees have been working from home all week and are currently being told not to return to the Shell Centre until next Monday.
We asked Shell if maintenance cutbacks had contributed to the flood, but at time of writing it hadnt got back to us with comment.
In March 2008, Shell waved goodbye to 3,000 IT staffers in a $4bn outsourcing gig.
The companys London office at one point contained a travel agency, hairdresser, restaurants and bars, a gym, bank, cinema and huge swimming pool all operating underneath the tower. ®
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
