Eric Bedford, the government's chief architect in the 1950s and 1960s and designer of the Department of the Environment offices in Marsham Street, central London, has died aged 91.
Bedford was appointed the youngest-ever chief architect of the Ministry of Works at the age of 41. In the 1960s, his department designed the 150 m high Post Office Tower, now the BT Tower.

Although the DoE offices became icons of architectural brutality, railed against by countless environment ministers, they did draw some faint praise from Nicholas Pevsner and Bridget Cherry in Buildings of England.

The authors admired its exposed concrete frame, which was "carried through without any embellishment, as an honest and ruthlessly utilitarian statement".