Pitmaston

The building is headquarters for the Ideal Benefit Society, constructed in 1930-31 by Birmingham architect Holland W. Hobbiss in a restrained symmetrical Neo-Classical style. It is built of brick with pantile hipped roofs, featuring wooden sash windows. The building has a T-shaped plan.

The five-part facade incorporates an advanced central entrance block, wide flanking wings of three bays, and crosswings to the ends, all unified by continuous projecting eaves with mutules. The central entrance block is taller and arranged over three bays, with a curved central bay housing an advanced stone Doric porch inscribed with "IDEAL BENEFIT SOCIETY FOUNDED MCCMXCII" to the frieze. The porch shelters a pair of doors with four horizontal fluted panels and an overlight, above which is a first-floor tripartite bow window. An attic storey features a wide semi-circular window within a brick surround, topped by stone coping. Recessed bays flank the central block, displaying stone date plaques and 12-over-12 pane sash windows to the ground floor, with 16-over-16 pane sashes on the first floor and a stone balcony with an iron balustrade on fluted brackets. Oculus windows are present in the attic floor. The wings feature three bays of sash windows within wide rounded arches, and re-entrant corner towers have stone steps leading to a panelled door, a four-over-four pane sash window, and a brick parapet with a stone balustrade. The crosswings have three 12-over-12 pane sashes below a central pair of doors that open onto a balcony with a stone corbel and iron balustrade. The return elevations feature a centrally advanced bay with an oculus below two-storey windows with a fanlight to the stair, all under a small pedimented roof. Two bays flank this with 12-over-12 pane sash windows on both the ground and first floors. The rear elevation mirrors the front, with two bays of 12-over-12 pane sashes on each floor in the crosswings, and four bays of sash windows within rounded arches flanking the wings. A rear wing of seven bays and three storeys, plus a basement, is located on a sloping site. It features three and fifth bays with hipped roofs, multi-pane sashes on each bay and floor, and a recessed bay with an attic oculus. The rear elevation has a pair of oculi to the top corners, a central pair of paned doors within a stone architrave with a segmental pediment, and a balcony on stone corbels with an iron balustrade. A deep brick plinth anchors the ground floor, and the central door is set within a rounded surround.

The interior features an entrance hall with a deep coffered ceiling and rounded-arch marble bays displaying company history. The building’s T-plan includes four staircases, each with iron balustrades featuring foliate detailing. A skylit front corridor leads to a boarded room.