Oceanic House

Oceanic House is a headquarters office block built between 1903 and 1906 by H. Tanner junior. It features a Portland stone facade on a steel frame and has a leaded roof. The building showcases an interesting early Neo-Mannerist design that incorporates Greek and Baroque motifs. It has three main storeys, along with a prominent "top hamper" consisting of three storeys of attics.

The entrance front is five windows wide, with five-window splayed returns to Cockspur Street and Pall Mall East. The ground floor has a large square-headed central doorway and full-length windows, while the first and second floors feature architraved bronze casements that are square in shape. The centerpiece of the facade is a giant three-storey engaged column portico with Ionic capitals, designed in a modified Bassae-French neo-classical style. The outer bays are adorned with "French" apron panels that vertically link the windows and are flanked by simplified Doric pilasters that support an entablature, which is broken over the portico and topped with a balustrade.

The three storeys of attics are more complex in design, featuring two-storey pedimented flanking aedicule pavilions that are topped with a set-back attic storey, complete with a cornice and blocking course. The centerpiece above the portico is highlighted by a two-storey full-width rusticated "Diocletiant," with the attic storey rising above it. This section includes quoin pilasters and three keystoned oculi, topped with a balustraded parapet and a pedimented central "Doric" panel that crowns the entire structure. The return elevations are similar but utilize pilaster giant order throughout the first three storeys, with slight mannerist variations in the fenestration of the outer bays and enclosed porches that feature corniced doorways at the far ends.