30 Cannon Street (formerly Crédit Lyonnais)

Bank headquarters built 1974–77 by Whinney, Son & Austen Hall (Jeremy Mackay-Lewis, partner in charge), with structural engineers Ove Arup & Partners.

The building occupies a triangular site at the junction of Cannon Street and Queen Victoria Street, with Bread Street forming the narrow base. It comprises six storeys plus a raised basement, with a reinforced concrete frame clad in double-skinned panels of glass-fibre reinforced cement (GRC).

The original design featured three external entrances on Cannon Street, Queen Victoria Street and Bread Street, all providing access to a central circular banking hall arranged around a lift core. The circular plan was conceived to provide counter positions of equal importance for up to three banks, whose offices would occupy the three points of the triangle. A suite of conference rooms was located at the centre of the building. The Bread Street entrance has since been infilled.

The external elevations are composed of storey-height GRC cladding units on a 1.5 metre module, off-white in colour and separated by bands of polished black granite. The upper storeys have tapering windows with rounded corners, set between curved fins which lean outwards at an angle of five degrees. On the uppermost storey these units are turned 180 degrees. The raised ground floor is divided by larger pre-cast units into 4.5 metre bays, three times the upper floor module. The glazing here is facetted and terminates in a flattened four-centred arch, with black granite spandrel panels beneath. Main entrances on Cannon Street and Queen Victoria Street are highlighted by flanking bays which extend the wide ground-floor bays to the floors above. The cantilevered entrance canopies have been replaced in glass.

At the Bread Street end, each storey is set back from the one below to preserve adequate daylight and neighbouring properties' right to light. Full-height facetted window strips are set between flat mullions, with vertical stair towers separating the two designs. Windows throughout are bronze-tinted double-glazed units in PVC-covered steel frames.

The central banking hall was originally finished in travertine, with counters of bullet-proof glass, marble, stainless steel and suede. The office floors above were finished with standard suspended ceilings and floor finishes. The internal face of the external envelope is clad in GRC panels of similar appearance to those of the exterior. The perimeter railings to Cannon Street and Queen Victoria Street incorporate arched shapes matching the cladding panels.

The ground floor layout, upper office floors, stairs, lifts, basement plant, strong rooms, reception area, infilled Bread Street entrance, and replacement glass entrance canopies have been entirely altered or replaced and are not of special interest.