45-46, Albemarle Street

MATERIALS: reinforced-concrete frame clad in Portland stone and grey vitrolite; rear elevation clad in bush-hammered concrete with smooth concrete panels; brick infill to WC wings; steel-framed windows to both elevations.

PLAN: mirrored plan with recessed entrances to either side; stairs against outer wall; WCs in small projections to rear. The ground floor and basement are deeper in plan than the upper floors, occupying the entire building plot. The office layout of No. 46 designed by Goldfinger no longer survives. The offices to No. 45 were designed simply as open spaces to be fitted out by respective lessees. The dividing wall has been removed on some floors to create a single office, an intentional part of the design.

EXTERIOR: six storeys high and four bays wide. The façade is set back from the street: a means of conforming with the London County Council's plot ratios while avoiding a set-back top floor. The glazing system consists of ‘photobolic screens’, a light-diffusing device used by Goldfinger at his house in Willow Road, Hampstead (1939) and later at Alexander Fleming House (1959-67), whereby the upper sections of the glazing are set back; the ledge of the lower part serving to reflect light further back into the room. The second and fourth floors have central paired steel-framed oriels. These combined features give the façade its distinctive rhythm of set-back and projecting planes. The fascia to the shop front is an exposed steel I-beam; the plate-glass shop fronts and travertine cladding to the entrances date from the early C21. The façade is surmounted by a timber eaves cornice at 45º supported on concrete posts. The rear elevation has the same glazing as the front, minus the oriels.

INTERIOR: each shop has a steel spiral stair down to basement. The original steel and glass screen separating the entrance hall and shop of No. 46 is believed to survive beneath later cladding. The shop interiors have been otherwise much altered and lack special interest. Stairs to offices have steel balustrades and tubular steel handrails. The office interiors have been repeatedly modernised and lack special interest.