Royal London Mutual Insurance Building

WOLVERHAMPTON

SO9198NE LICHFIELD STREET 895-1/12/263 (North side) 12/02/75 Nos.11-19 (Odd) (Formerly Listed as: LICHFIELD STREET (North side) Royal London Mutual Insurance Building)

GV II

Includes: Royal London Mutual Insurance Building LICHFIELD STREET. Office building with shop units. 1902. By Essex, Nichol and Goodman. Ashlar with slate roof. Edwardian Baroque style with rich carved decoration. 3 storeys with attic and central tower; 7-bay rounded facade to Princes Square with similar 3-bay facade to Lichfield Street curved corner to Lichfield Passage. Rusticated piers and entablature to ground floor, giant Ionic colonnade to 1st and 2nd floors, pavilion roof with dormers and top railings. Ground floor has later shop fronts between piers with cherub panels, panelled friezes with cartouches. 1st and 2nd floor canted bay windows, with central round-headed windows to 1st floor, and 1:2:1 round-headed lights to 2nd floor with 10-pane sashes; attic has 2-light dormer windows in aedicules with cartouches in open pediments between finials with urns. Central bay has round-headed entrance on squat tapering antae, frieze above has cartouche with flanking panels with festoons and ovals with letters: EL/FS to left and A/1902/D to right. Antae flank 1st and 2nd storeys; 3-window attic has 12-pane sashes and balustraded parapet with urn finials. Tower has hollow-chamfered angles and bulls' eyes with giant keystones and open pediments; aedicules below with open pediments and windows with giant keystones; cupola and finial. Facade to Lichfield Street similar, but 6-window attic with central gable with 2 round-headed windows, coped gable ends with stacks. Curved angle is plainer, with 2-light windows and dormers with segmental pediments. Plainer facade to Wulfruna St of 4 storeys with attic; 4-bay range; entablature on mask-corbels to 2nd floor; has 3-light windows, those to 1st floor with transoms, those to 3rd floor with round-headed lights, attic has straight-headed dormers. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London: 1974-: P.318).

Listing NGR: SO9156098796