Atlas Chambers

Atlas Chambers is an insurance company office, now serving as a banking hall and offices. Built in 1929 by Michael Waterhouse, the grandson of Alfred Waterhouse, it was constructed for the Atlas Assurance Company. The building features a steel frame with Portland stone cladding and has a narrow rectangular plan on a corner site, characterized by a chamfered corner. It is designed in a 20th-century classical style.

The facade rises six storeys and includes a four-window layout, plus a three-window attic. The lower section consists of a two-storey banking hall topped with a cornice, followed by three regular storeys, the upper two of which have shallow giant pilasters and another cornice. The top floor and attic are designed as a two-storey, three-window pedimented penthouse with flanking one-storey wings.

The banking hall features a plate-glass screen with a central bronze doorway, topped by a bronze figure of Atlas holding a golden globe, along with a bronze plaque on the corner and a cartouche above it. The left side of the building, facing Brown Street, has a similar plate-glass screen supported by fluted Doric columns arranged distyle in antis. The upper floors display very regular fenestration, similar to that of Ship Canal House next door, featuring tilting casement windows with margin panes and plain surrounds. The corner and return side also match the front, although the attic storey is set back on this side. Atlas Chambers forms a group with Ship Canal House, which it can be easily confused with at first glance.