Palladium House

Palladium House, at 1-4 Argyll Street, Soho, is a corner office block constructed between 1928 and 1929 by Raymond Hood in collaboration with Gordon Jeeves. It was extended northwards in 1935. The building's exterior is striking, featuring a polished black granite facing, metal casement windows, and enamel trimmings, capped by a flat roof. It rises seven storeys, with a recessed attic storey. The frontages are seven windows wide to Great Marlborough Street and eleven windows to Argyll Street, arranged in groups of four and seven bays, reflecting the two phases of construction.

The ground floor boasts large, flat arched display windows and doorways, pierced without moulding but highlighted by bronze champlevé enamelled plates. These plates feature formalised lotus and jazz-moderne geometric patterns in a vibrant palette of yellows, oranges, greens, and gold. Upper floors contain plain openings with metal casements. The champlevé motifs reappear as a frieze above the sixth floor windows, and are repeated on the stepped and coved main cornice and similarly coved attic cornice, both inspired by Egyptian design.

The building was originally constructed for the National Radiator Company as a smaller version of the American Radiator Building in New York. The black and gold colours are a direct reference to the company’s livery. Initially comprising the southernmost four bays, it was later extended by a further seven bays to the north in 1935. This represents a rare example of a London-scaled American tower block design, incorporating Art Deco or ‘Moderne’ details popular after the Paris Exhibition of 1925. The enamel surround to the Argyll Street entrance has been removed and is now held by the Victoria & Albert Museum. The interior of the building has not been inspected.