87 And 88, St James'S Street Sw1

Nos. 87 and 88 St James's Street is a corner office block built in 1903-04 by architects R. Norman Shaw and Ernest Newton for the Alliance Assurance Company. The building is constructed from Portland stone and features a slate roof, showcasing an intuitive mannerist classicism characteristic of Shaw's later work. It stands four storeys tall with a dormer.

The main facade completes the Pall Mall vista, featuring a three-bay ground floor and mezzanine podium that transitions to five bays on the first and second floors, topped with a three-bay pedimented attic storey. The podium displays boldly banded rustication and voussoirs above three large semicircular arched openings that frame office and mezzanine windows, including a central doorway flanked by inset rusticated columns. The upper floors have rusticated quoins, with first-floor windows adorned with segmental pediments on consoles and stone balconettes featuring bombé "Rococo" ironwork. The second-floor windows have keystoned flat arches linked by an impost string, with both floors having sill courses and consoles beneath the second-floor window sills.

A projecting modillion eaves cornice is interrupted at the center by a lifted attic, which features an open pediment and heavy voussoirs above the central window, contrasting with the lightness of the leaded casement dormers. The return to Cleveland Row includes rusticated end pavilions with five windows in between, with first-floor windows corniced and featuring balconettes similar to those on the main facade. The rear elevation is a simplified version of the front. The office interiors were likely detailed by Newton.