45-46, Albemarle Street

The building at 45-46 Albemarle Street is a six-storey, four-bay office block constructed in the mid-20th century. It has a reinforced-concrete frame clad in Portland stone and grey vitrolite, with a bush-hammered concrete and smooth concrete panel rear elevation, brick infill to the WC wings, and steel-framed windows throughout.

The building has a mirrored plan with recessed entrances on either side. The ground floor and basement extend across the entire building plot, being deeper in plan than the upper floors. The office layout for No. 46, initially designed by Goldfinger, has been lost. No. 45 was originally planned as simple open spaces intended for tenant fit-out, and dividing walls have been removed on several floors as part of the deliberate design.

The façade is set back from the street to comply with London County Council plot ratios and avoid a set-back top floor. The glazing system incorporates “photobolic screens,” a light-diffusing device previously used by Goldfinger. Upper sections of the glazing are recessed and the lower section acts as a light reflector. Paired steel-framed oriels are centrally positioned on the second and fourth floors, creating a distinctive rhythm of set-back and projecting planes. The shop front has an exposed steel I-beam fascia, with recent plate-glass shop fronts and travertine cladding to the entrances. A timber eaves cornice at a 45-degree angle, supported on concrete posts, tops the facade. The rear elevation mirrors the front, without the oriels.

Each shop has a steel spiral staircase leading down to the basement. An original steel and glass screen, originally separating the entrance hall and shop of No. 46, may still exist beneath later cladding. The shop interiors have been extensively altered and are of little interest. The office interiors also lack special interest due to repeated modernisation, and feature steel balustrades and tubular steel handrails on the staircases.