Royal Insurance Building, 106, 110, 112 Buchanan Street, Glasgow

The Royal Insurance Building, located at 106, 110, and 112 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, was designed by Thomson and Sandilands and constructed between 1897 and 1898. It's a four-story commercial building executed in Dunmore ashlar sandstone, displaying architectural elements of the Free Renaissance style.

The building’s Buchanan Street elevation features three wide bays and nine bays which return into Royal Bank Place. A full-height, splayed corner bay is notable for its ornate Jacobean doorpiece crafted from polished granite, incorporating columns with consoles, a cornice, and an obelisk flanked by a heraldic shield. Decorative wrought-iron elements top the entrance gates. Narrow windows flank the main entrance, and the corner bay’s first-floor windows have segmental pediments surmounted by torches. Carved panels sit above the second-floor windows. The ground floor has a base course, and a cill course and consoled cornice run along the elevation. Raised bands define the angle pilasters above the ground floor.

On the Buchanan Street elevation, recessed windows are framed by keystoned round arches and attached columns in antis. A bronze cartouche identifies the Royal Insurance Company. Two modern shop fronts occupy the centre and left bays. A tripartite window features centrally at the first floor, and a canted oriel with a consoled design sits above at the second floor, with a central, aediculed light. Open pediments, also consoled, top the first-floor windows of the outer bays, and corniced bipartites with carved panels are found above the second-floor windows. The third-floor windows are characterized by paired pilaster jambs. A die-raised blocking course features a central panel with a carved cartouche and obelisk finials. The corner bay is crowned by a squat, octagonal ashlar turret, displaying cartouches, a consoled cornice, a facetted roof, and an ornate cast-iron crown.

The symmetrical Royal Bank Place elevation is notable for a doorway at the centre with an urn finial and a flush balcony above the door. A modillioned segmental pediment surmounts the centre bay, flanked by blocking courses with obelisk finials. Wallhead stacks are present and adjoin the octagonal tower to the left.

The north return elevation, facing North Court Lane, originally comprised two simple ashlar bays with bipartites on each of the first three floors, with single-light windows to the right. Each floor features a cill course. Linked wallhead stacks with moulded coping are also present. Later additions include recessed bays with glazed brick on the east side. The building’s windows predominantly feature sash and case construction with two-pane lower sashes and small-pane upper sashes.