Although originally planned for demolition due to its dilapidated condition, Lord Alistair McAlpine (property developer, treasurer of Britain's Conservative Party and Chairman of St Georges Investments (ACP)) decided to retain and refurbish the building and rename it St George's House.
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McAlpine founded his own publishing house in London in the 1960s, and was variously an art dealer, art collector, zookeeper (in Broome, Western Australia), horticulturist, aviculturist, agriculturist, gardener and passionate traveller.
The topping out ceremony was held in December 2004, and performed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Lord McAlpine, and Ian J. Henderson, outgoing chief executive of the site's developers Land Securities.
The BBC TV programme Newsnight broadcast, shown on 2 November 2012 and reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's lead journalist Angus Stickler made an allegation against an unnamed politician, who was widely identified on the internet as the former Conservative Party Treasurer Lord McAlpine.