Sun Insurance Buildings

The Sun Insurance Buildings are office structures built between 1902 and 1904 by the architects Oliver, Leeson and Wood for the Sun Insurance Company. They are constructed from sandstone ashlar with a granite plinth and door surrounds, topped with a copper roof. The buildings feature a free architectural style and rise six storeys high, comprising five bays with a three-bay curved corner.

The central entrance consists of double doors set within a bolection-moulded architrave, surrounded by a coved rusticated stone frame and a fanlight above. The ground floor is rusticated, and there are prominent brackets above the entrance that support a balcony, which is adorned with a window in a segmental-pedimented Ionic aedicule featuring a carved sun. All windows have architraves, with bracketed pediments on those in the outer first-floor bays, and cornices on the second floor. The building is topped with a prominent modillioned cornice.

The curved corner features a high plinth with cushion rustication and a guilloche band. The central bay has a door framed by a fluted architrave under an oeil-de-boeuf, flanked by large Atlantes on brackets, which are richly decorated with leaf and flower carvings, supporting a first-floor balcony. The balconies are embellished with wrought-iron sun motifs. The right return to Westgate Road continues the plinth and features giant Corinthian pilasters supporting a segmental pediment that contains a large sunburst. The roof is curved over the corner bay.