Former Scottish Widows' Office

FORMER SCOTTISH WIDOWS' OFFICE

Offices built 1934-5 by William Curtis Green for the Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society. The building has a steel frame with Portland stone facings to Cornhill and glazed brick to the rear elevation in Change Alley. It follows a trapezoid plan and incorporates a passage to Change Alley at the right. The building steps down from nine storeys on the frontage to five at the rear.

The symmetrical five-bay facade is set under a three-bay pediment incorporating two attic storeys and considerable sculptural enrichment. The principal five upper floors sit under a balustraded parapet with regularly spaced fenestration of small-paned timber sashes arranged in an alternating pattern of single and tripartite openings, reversed on the fifth floor. A segmental pediment and architraved surround frame the central first-floor window. The ground floor is rusticated, with a round-arched and keystoned entrance to the passage at the right, matched at the left by an entrance to speculative offices on the upper floors.

The offices of the Scottish Widows' on the ground, first floor and basement are reached through an imposing central entrance with double doors of bronze panelling under a top-light with a jazz-deco style iron grille, set in an architraved doorcase surround with bracketed cornice. Square windows to either side have rectangular metal panes under giant keystones and incorporate grilled basement lights between volutes and a moulded sill beneath. A simple plinth forms the base. Original lettering over the door reads 'SCOTTISH WIDOWS FUND', with 'SCOTTISH WIDOWS' FUND AND LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY' appearing below the first floor.

The return through the passage to Change Alley consists of eight bays. The upper floors feature tripartite sash windows containing glazing bars, while the ground floor has metal windows with similar panes and incorporates sloping top-lights to the basement. The rear elevation has an attic set back behind jazz-deco ironwork over three storeys with three bays of sashed windows containing glazing bars. The ground floor has metal windows with similar panes in tripartite pattern incorporating sloping top-lights to the basement. A rounded cornice over this incorporates a plaque and banner bearing the lettering 'THE SCOTTISH WIDOWS FUND'. A round-arched door with metal door and margin lights completes this elevation.

The interiors feature a lift lobby to the ground and first floors with plaster decoration in Regency style. The ground floor is dominated by the General Office Hall, of double height and rectangular plan with four bays. Pillars stand to the east, a coffered ceiling and decorative frieze survive largely unaltered despite the insertion of a gallery. Offices at the south-east corner include, in sequence, a waiting room with shallow apsidal ends and plaster decoration; an inner room panelled in brown oak with inlay panels in contrasting woods; and an interview room. The first floor contains a Board and Meeting Room extending into a shallow bay with flush panelling in English brown oak inlayed with contrasting woods and a Portland stone fire surround. Heraldic motifs such as a lion and winged horse recur throughout. The entrance to the speculative offices is lined with Hoptonwood stone, which continues up the stairs and in the upper foyers.

The facade is simple but well-detailed, with good sculpture at its top and fine metalwork at its base. The interior is remarkable not only for its completeness and opulence, but for the lightness and modernity of the motifs employed, presenting a contrast to the continuing classical tradition of the City exemplified in the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens.