Norwest House

Norwest House is an office block built in 1928 by Sir Frank Baines, designed as part of a cohesive architectural scheme with Thames House, which flanks the Horseferry Road approach to Lambeth Bridge. The building features sculpted figures by Jagger and is constructed from Portland stone and granite on a steel frame, topped with leaded roofs. It presents a monumental corner block in the Lutyens-Baker Classical style, characterized by a giant order colonnade that adorns the "top hamper" beneath a steeply hipped roof.

The structure is five storeys tall with a four-storey attic and has a symmetrical front facing Millbank that is 27 windows wide, along with a seven-window wide splayed corner and a five-window return to Horseferry Road. The ground floor is faced with granite and includes three doorways to Millbank and one at the center of the corner splay. The main entrance on Millbank extends up to the first floor, featuring a coffered-soffit archivolt arch within an architrave surround that rises to an entablature and cornice. The doors are plated and panelled in nickel-copper alloy, embellished with naturalistic motifs by W.B. Fagan.

The ground floor and the rusticated first to fourth floors have recessed glazing bar metal casements set under flat voussoired arches with keystones. There are giant niches on the third and fourth floors that frame arched windows, each topped with peacocks and a lunette light above—five on the Millbank side and one on each of the other two elevations. The building features giant quoin pilasters and an entablature above the fourth floor, culminating in a balustraded parapet with statues over the corner dies. The "top hamper" consists of four storeys with a giant order colonnade on the principal sixth and seventh floors, flanked by giant engaged order end pavilions, each containing one large window, and a central three-bay pavilion with a projecting attic facing Millbank. An entablature crowns the seventh floor, leading to a slightly recessed topmost attic storey.