Chartered Accountants' Hall, One Moorgate Place

The headquarters of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, comprising three distinct architectural phases. The original building was designed by John Belcher between 1890 and 1893 in the Free Baroque style, built in Portland stone with important sculptural work by Hamo Thornycroft and Harry Bates. An extension in the same Baroque style was added in 1930-1 by JJ Joass, with sculpture by JA Stevenson. A Brutalist extension was designed in 1964 by William Whitfield (with Lowe & Rodin as structural engineers) and built between 1966 and 1970 in reinforced concrete and granite.

The building has a rectangular plan with Belcher's block facing west onto Moorgate Place. The Joass and Whitfield extensions run eastwards at right angles along Great Swan Alley, splaying slightly outward towards the eastern end. The main part of Whitfield's extension occupies the north-east corner, facing Copthall Avenue to the east and Langthorn Court to the north.

Exterior

West Elevation

The nine-bay front elevation facing Moorgate Place is of three storeys plus basement. Ground-floor bays are separated by banded Tuscan columns arranged in groups of three, with windows featuring a central open-pedimented light within their glazing-bar arrangement. The main entrance at the centre consists of a large porch with paired banded Tuscan columns supporting an open scrolled pediment containing a large cartouche depicting the Institute's coat of arms, held aloft by two classical male figures. The doorway is recessed with heavy bronze doors featuring relief roundel designs and a keyed fanlight with plain glazing above.

First-floor windows have shaped flat hoods supported on carved consoles. The three windows on the far left, lighting the former Council Chamber, also have semi-circular lights above and decorative metal grilles attached to their lower sections. Below these windows runs a continuous sill band in the form of a dentilled cornice interrupted by caryatids by Harry Bates. The second-floor bays are separated by engaged Tuscan columns and contain arched multipaned windows with margin lights set within elaborate surrounds incorporating Gibbs-style jambs and varying shaped heads.

Beneath the second-floor windows is a sculptured frieze by Hamo Thornycroft that cost £3,000 and symbolises all the activities that have benefitted from the service of accountants. The three frieze panels on the far left represent the arts, sciences and crafts, depicted as female figures in classical dress. The remaining panels depict figures in contemporary dress representing education, commerce, manufactures, agriculture and mining. All panels have a central figure in classical dress bearing the name of the subject on a tablet. An entablature crowns the elevation.

The building's south-west corner is angled and maintains the front elevation's styling. A massive carved corbel by Harry Bates incorporating the arms of the Institute and two figure brackets supports a pillared oriel above. The oriel's dome is surmounted by a blindfolded figure of Justice by Hamo Thornycroft, which stands before a tall niche. At her feet are truncated figures representing accountants, continuing the frieze theme.

South Elevation

The south elevation facing Great Swan Alley consists of three return bays in the same style as the front, with Thornycroft's frieze panels representing the railways, shipping, and India and the colonies. The building then reduces from three storeys to two storeys plus attic due to ancient lights restrictions. An octagonal turret is placed at this change in height and has an open-domed cupola providing roof access.

The first three bays of this lower section form the original extent of Belcher's building and share the front elevation's styling. However, above the first-floor windows and below a bracketed eaves is a continuous frieze by Thornycroft depicting professions and trades associated with building, ending with depictions of Belcher and Thornycroft. The third bay contains an elaborate Palladian entrance with an empty niche above, originally intended for a seated bronze statue of Queen Victoria. Roof dormers light the attic level.

The next six bays are Joass' 1930-1 extension, carried out in Belcher's style with the only difference being that the caryatids have 1930s hairstyles. The frieze extension was executed by JA Stevenson and depicts a further 31 figures representing the history of building from prehistory to the 20th century, including depictions of Joass and Stevenson.

The three bays on the far right were added by Whitfield in 1966-70, also in the same style but with three sculptural panels by David McFall instead of a continuous frieze. These panels depict the Institute's Victorian founders, ancient Egyptian scribes, and the invention of double-entry book-keeping in Renaissance Italy.

East Elevation

The east return facing Copthall Avenue has an ornate entrance portal by Whitfield in Belcher's style, after which the architectural styling changes dramatically to a Brutalist idiom. The main part of Whitfield's 1966-70 extension occupying the north-east corner is of seven storeys plus two basement levels. Five office floors are suspended above the Great Hall from two parallel pre-stressed concrete beams at roof level, supported by four pillars outside the Great Hall. This enables an uninterrupted interior space free of supports.

The east elevation adjacent to the Belcher-style entrance on Copthall Avenue has Louis Kahn-style lift and staircase towers with vertical-groove bush-hammered concrete walls flanking a glazed entrance bay. The stair changes orientation at third-floor level, marking a change in external treatment where the stair tower then has corrugated cladding. To the right of the lift tower are a series of blind boxes (containing toilet facilities) clad in polished grey granite, separated by wide rebates providing a modern interpretation of the building's Baroque rustication. The first-floor level is fully glazed, lighting the Great Hall's east foyer. The ground-floor level is set back and also glazed, lighting the entrance foyer.

At the north-east corner above street level is a cantilevered stair projection containing the stair leading to the Great Hall. The projection is of reinforced concrete with individual steps and quarter landings expressed in the soffit. Above rises a bush-hammered concrete service tower, replicated at the western end.

North Elevation

The ground floor of the north elevation facing Langthorn Court contains a service/loading bay. Above, the north end of the Great Hall projects as a cantilevered box with tall narrow slit windows set between pre-cast concrete mullions. The upper office floors, identically styled on the extension's south elevation, are lit by strip windows of reflective glass with floor levels denoted by polished granite bands. The higher floors are cantilevered outward.

Interior

Belcher's 1890-3 building retains original Tobasco mahogany doors, partitions and panelling, with doorcases and architraves of varying styles including shouldered and pedimented examples, many ornate and some incorporating classical heads.

Main Entrance and Reception Areas

The main entrance leads into a double-cubed saucer-domed vestibule containing two large ornate marble plaques designed by Joass and executed by Messrs HH Martin & Co. These were dedicated in May 1922 as a war memorial to Institute members and articled clerks killed during the First World War. The vestibule opens into a coffered barrel-vaulted entrance hall with arches and Tuscan piers and Ionic pilasters in Portland stone, with a black and white patterned marble floor. A blind arch at the hall's northern end contains a marble plaque inscribed with past Institute Presidents' names, set within a bronze Mannerist frame and Portland-stone surround. Above the surround is a Baroque cartouche.

Double doors in the north-west corner lead into the former library occupying the ground floor's northern end. The main stair of Portland stone lies off the north-east corner. In 1930 a lift was inserted on the entrance hall's eastern side in former office space and toilets were added in the basement, with an additional stairway created behind the lift shaft. The entrance hall's southern end rises in floor level and is accessed via steps. The side walls have blind Portland-stone doorways containing plaques recording the names of Institute Presidents (north wall) and Secretaries and Chief Executives (south wall). A doorway with a classical doorcase leads into the building's current reception area, created by opening up former offices at the ground floor's southern end.

Former Library

The original library, now the Members' Room, has a square-coffered ceiling supported by paired Tuscan columns and an entablature of Portland stone. Two side galleries with white-painted balustrade are supported by hybrid Ionic pillars and linked by a balustraded Venetian-style bridge decorated with two tall Venetian-style lanterns. A large Portland-stone fireplace surmounted by a bust of Belcher exists at the western end of the north wall; a corresponding fireplace at the eastern end has been removed. The original bookcases have been removed.

Main Stair

The main stair has paired Ionic marble columns on the half-landing level, where two arched doorways lead into Whitfield's Great Hall. The stair's balustrade changes at different floor levels and includes a decorative painted-metal balustrade and a solid Portland stone balustrade. The stair was formerly lit by four stained-glass windows by Henry Holiday, removed to a chapel in Henstridge, Somerset when the Whitfield extension was added. A circular glass dome was also replaced by a shallow oval glazed dome at that time. The four Henry Holiday stained-glass windows were re-acquired by the Institute in 2017 and reinstated at the main entrance to the Great Hall.

First Floor

The first-floor corridor has a groined ceiling and black and white patterned marble floor. A pedimented marble niche structure containing a bust of Queen Victoria by E Onslow Ford now stands alongside the corridor's west wall. It was originally located in the former Council Chamber's eastern apse but had to be moved when the Whitfield extension was added and a doorway inserted into its former location. Rooms off the corridor's west side include the former Committee Room, now the Small Meeting Room, with acanthus-leaf ceiling moulding (now gilded) and a bronze fireplace by Alfred Stevens.

Former Council Chamber

The former Council Chamber (now the Main Reception Room), based on early Renaissance church designs, occupies the first floor's northern end but rises to the building's full height. It now acts as an anteroom to the Great Hall in Whitfield's extension. The room has a central domed crossing with galleried semi-circular apses at each end supported by Tuscan columns and piers. Frescoes added by George Murray in 1913-14 to Belcher's designs adorn most wall space, although some small areas in the apses are now painted over. A large fresco opposite the room's entrance depicts a scene incorporating Eastern merchants, representing 'Science bringing order to Commerce'.

The room's entrance is set within an elaborate doorcase projecting into the room and surmounted by a clock of 1893 by John Walker, set within a case painted by George Murray. Above the entrance is a large fresco depicting the 'Triumph of Law'. Murray employed an enlarging effect by using pictures of the room as background for his allegorical groups. The crossing has a saucer dome with multipaned glazing resting on a drum and covered by an octagonal skylight on the roof. The crossing's pendentives are decorated with frescoes of Michelangelo-esque classical figures representing 'SAPIENTIA', 'VERITAS', 'PRUDENTIA' and 'JUSTICIA', as well as depictions of coats of arms belonging to the Institute's founding societies' cities. Around the dome's base is a frescoed frieze depicting the signs of the zodiac. The dome has a galleried ambulatory with Ionic columns incorporating gilded capitals, accessed via steep wooden stairs off the main stair and west gallery. The apses contain small marble fireplaces and have stained-glass windows at both floor level and galleries.

Former Oak Hall

The former Oak Hall on the second floor was altered by Whitfield in 1966-70. Originally a double-height space classically decorated with fluted wall pilasters and wall panelling, it now has an inserted concrete floor incorporating lozenge-shaped coffering on the underside ceiling. The decoration has been removed and replaced with bleached-oak panelling similar to that in Whitfield's Great Hall. The lower half now forms the Council Chamber with installed tiered seating, whilst the upper half is now interview rooms accessed via a short extension to the main stair. The room's original shallow barrel-vaulted ceiling, which incorporated three large domed circular skylights and glazed oculi acting as a clerestory, has been replaced by a ceiling with small circular skylights providing additional light into the interview rooms. The oculi survive.

Joass' Extension

Joass' 1930-1 extension has been heavily altered internally with most spaces thoroughly modernised and some walls knocked through. A new library created on the ground floor in 1966-70, which also occupied part of Whitfield's extension, is now office space.

Whitfield's Extension

The basement, ground and first floors of Whitfield's 1966-70 extension are built conventionally from the ground up, unlike the five upper floors suspended above the Great Hall. Original partly-glazed doors with large rectangular brass handles survive. The lift lobbies on each floor mirror the exterior styling in bush-hammered concrete. The main terrazzo dog-leg stair is cantilevered and appears to float, being attached to walls only at landing and half-landing levels. Located at the extension's south-east corner, it has a steel railing balustrade. From the third floor upwards when the stair changes position and orientation and becomes enclosed, the balustrade is replaced by a timber and steel floating handrail.

Entrance Foyer

The Copthall Avenue entrance foyer was originally double-height but has now been floored over. It has an Italian brick floor arranged in a circular pattern around a black-marble centre (now hidden under later covering) and roughcast and bush-hammered concrete walls. The foyer's original pink Morelena marble reception desk has been removed. A wide Portland-stone stair at the north-east corner leads to the Great Hall's eastern foyer.

Great Hall

The Great Hall on the first floor is a large space free of internal pillars due to the extension's structure. Its floor, resting partly on concrete load-bearing walls and partly cantilevered, has a parquet covering. The ceiling sweeps upward towards the hall's north end and a top-lit dais (the skylights now covered over) with its raking concrete ceiling beams exposed. The original lighting scheme survives. Full-height vertical slit windows at the north end are separated by concrete mullions and have hinged bleached-oak shutters. Bleached-oak panelling also exists on the northern half of the side walls but is now hidden by later partitioning. The Great Hall originally had glazed walls and doors at each end, since replaced by taller solid doors and partition walls retaining the original brass door furniture.

Later works of art installed in the 1980s have since been removed, including two panels over the entrances by David Kindersley depicting the Institute's coat of arms and the coat of arms of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants, and a tapestry by Eduardo Paolozzi produced in three vertical sections to hang between the panelling on the east wall. A perforated steel frieze by Charles Normandale added in 1983 and attached to the concrete mullions of the north window has also been removed, along with coloured glass in a sunburst pattern by David Kindersley added to the windows at the same time.

A foyer west of the Great Hall marks the division between the Belcher building and Whitfield's extension. Eight steps lead down from the Great Hall to a rusticated stone screen wall containing three round-arched doorways with prominent keystones, giving the impression of an external wall. Two doors access the main stair in Belcher's building, whilst the other provides access into the Main Reception Room.

Upper Office Floors and Basement

The Whitfield extension's office floors are largely open plan. Original features of special interest include the concrete ceilings with lozenge-shaped coffering (some now hidden by later suspended ceilings) and textured-concrete columns. A flat believed to have occupied part of one of the upper floors and used by the Presidents and Secretary no longer survives, presumably converted to office space.