Royal Insurance Building

The Royal Insurance Building is an office building completed in 1903, designed by J. Francis Doyle. It is constructed of Portland stone with a grey granite basement and ground floor. The building stands four storeys tall, with attics and a basement, featuring eleven bays, including three bays facing Dale Street. The basement and ground floor are rusticated, while the round-headed windows have tripartite sashes. The first-floor windows are adorned with Gibbs surrounds and iron balconies. The second and third floors are recessed behind an attached Doric colonnade and entablature. The lower dormers have architraves, keystones, and a mix of segmental and triangular pediments, while others are flat-topped with small paned casements. The building has tall cross-axial stacks with corners.

The entrance bay features a round-headed doorway flanked by rusticated Doric columns, leading to a first-floor round-headed window with a rusticated attached portico that carries a broken segmental pediment with sculptured figures. Above this is a roof with a campanile in three stages, topped by an octagonal cupola and gilded dome. The facade facing Dale Street includes a first-floor Venetian window and a second-floor relief frieze by Allen. Two turrets with round-arched openings at the top, surmounted by cupolas and finials, flank a gable that features a top window with rusticated Ionic pilasters, an entablature, and an iron balcony. Inside, the ground floor hall boasts a richly moulded coffered ceiling. This building is noted for its early use of steel-frame construction.