St James's House

St James's House

An employers' federation headquarters built between 1954 and 1957 to designs by John Madin.

The building comprises two joined blocks, each of two storeys. The western block is roughly square on plan and has a reinforced concrete frame clad with travertine marble and a variety of coloured slate and marbles. This block contains the reception, board room and conference rooms at ground floor level, with the offices of the chairman and his deputy at first floor level. The eastern block is lower and linear, with red brick cavity walls laid in Flemish bond, housing offices, kitchens and a dining room. The building is flat-roofed with felt covering.

The south front facing St James' Road comprises the lower red brick range to the right with 21 bays of closely-set windows to each floor, each having slightly projecting green slate surrounds. These windows have been replaced with uPVC-framed substitutes. A wide blank bay projects slightly at the far right. The taller projecting range at the left has travertine cladding to the first floor, which projects slightly. Windows at this upper level are arranged in pairs or triplets with seven full-height windows opening onto a balcony with a balustrade of slender metal uprights. At ground floor level there are four full-height windows beneath the balcony, and at the left a single large window lights the reception area. A free-standing screen wall veneered with green slate forms the flank of the entrance lobby, with diamond-shaped holes cut through it and a faceted concrete pillar at the corner.

The west front facing Frederick Road has a recessed entrance at the right-hand corner, approached by two steps and flanked by variegated marble walling. Two pairs of glass doors set in line form the entrance to the reception area, with door handles designed by Richard Swale and James Gibbons in the form of callipers holding a ball. To the right are five windows with projecting slate surrounds. At first floor level, travertine cladding covers the walling with three full-height lights to the right opening onto a balcony, and eight evenly-spaced windows to the left, all with projecting surrounds.

The north face has plain brick walling with evenly spaced windows to both floors. The taller main block has a large staircase window at the left with what appears to be original double-glazed fenestration, and a projecting lobby in the re-entrant angle with the lower block provides an entrance for Federation members.

The interior plan of the western block remains little altered from its original design. The reception hall runs north-south with the principal staircase at its northern end, featuring open-tread concrete steps and a balustrade with continuous veneered wood panelling above which the handrail is supported by metal balusters. The reception desk was originally set into an alcove but a new projecting counter has been built at the south end. Double doors to the main board room, formerly fitted with leather panels edged with brass fillets, have been replaced, and a mural showing workers in the engineering industries has also been replaced. The board room lies to the east of the reception area, approached down four shallow steps, with walls of sycamore strip panelling and a recessed panel to the centre of the ceiling. Replaced doors at its eastern end lead via a lobby to an ante-room and dining room, with kitchen beyond, all positioned in the lower eastern block.

At first floor level, the former chairman's office has wood panelled window reveals and fitted wooden shelving and cupboards to its eastern wall, with a recessed central panel to the ceiling. A lobby also contains a large fitted cupboard to one wall.

The lower eastern block does not correspond to its original first floor plan, with subdivided spaces and inserted suspended ceilings.

The interior of the first floor of the lower eastern office range is declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest, with the exception of the full height of the staircase hall and its staircase. The separate garage positioned to the south-east and the later separate conference centre to the north-east are also not of special architectural or historic interest.