2-10, Tavistock Street Wc2

Former Country Life Offices. These offices were built between 1904 and 1905 by Sir Edwin Lutyens, representing his first London commission. It was designed for Edward Hudson, the founder of "Country Life," for whom Lutyens had previously designed Deanery Garden at Sonning. The building is constructed of red brick and Portland stone with a pantile roof. It displays a distinctive “Wrenaissance” style blended with early Georgian details, carefully considered to appear impressive whether viewed from the street or from Southampton Street at an angled perspective.

The building is four stories high, with attic windows inserted into the parapet between 1956 and 1957, and dormers added to the roof at the same time. It has a facade of seven window bays (3:1:3). The ground floor is faced with deeply channelled stone, featuring a central arched doorway framed by a grand, elaborately carved “Georgian doorcase” with Corinthian pilasters, backed by half pilasters. The doorway has enriched carving to the frieze and carries dosserets to a large, broken segmental pediment over a central first-floor/mezzanine window. The ground floor has recessed sash windows with thick glazing bars; the stone channelled voussoirs create flat arches with enriched console-keystones. The first-floor/mezzanine windows are architraved with console keys and segmental heads, linked by stone aprons to the tall, architraved second-floor windows, which have pulvinated friezes and courses, with the centre window pedimented. The third floor has square, architraved windows. A bold, richly moulded stone cornice sits below the parapet and attic level. A sill band runs along the second floor and an impost band is present at the first-floor/mezzanine level. There are tall stone-dressed brick chimney stacks to the front pitch and along the ridge.

The interior includes a monumental entrance hall with a cross-vaulted ceiling and a Doric column screen leading to a staircase rising around a lift shaft, featuring a gallery half-landing overlooking the hall. The main rooms on the second floor (piano nobile) have deep coved ceilings dramatically emphasized above the chimney breasts, along with architraved and entablatured doorcases.