1848. J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



193 



IMPERIAL INSURANCE OFFICE, OLD BROAD St., CITY. 



John GiBso>f, Esq., Architect. 



(Witlt an Engraving^ Plate I X.J 



The progress of insurance companies, tlie great interest wliich 

 is felt by all classes in making a provision for the future, the es- 

 tablishment of new offices, and the extension of business, have 

 caused a demand for large public buildings, of architectural pre- 

 tensions, and capable of giving the required accommodation. 

 Thus, the City, in addition to the halls of its corporations, its 

 banks, and its dock buUdings, has now many ornaments to boast of 

 in the noble offices erected for transacting the business of the 

 assurance companies. It has been fortunate, too, that witli the 

 rise of these establishments, there has been a ctmcurrent improve- 

 ment in public taste, which has been productive of emulation among 

 the architects, and has given us each year a better class of works. 



^Vliat the club is to the street architecture of the west-end, the 

 assurance office is to the city ; and the edifices devoted to the more 

 useful purposes of life, it is pleasing to see, are not inferior to 

 those which are only the appendages of luxury. Indeed, the 

 range of assurance offices in London, constitutes in its architectu- 

 ral, as well as in its moral aspect, a characteristic of which England 

 may be proud. The foreigner has hitherto envied us our charities, 

 our parks, and our clubs ; he will now have another feature in the 

 physiognomy of London, wliich suggests honourable associations 

 in connection with the private and domestic habits of the profes- 

 sional and middle classes, and testifies to their earnest and 

 provident care for those to whose comfort their lives have been 

 devoted. 



The Sun, the Alliance, the Amicable, the Globe, and the Atlas, 

 are but a few among the buildings which will i-eadily suggest 

 themselves as coming within the class we have mentioned, each 

 the centre of operations of some great institution, in which pro- 

 perty to a large amount is insured, or on which thousands of wives 

 and of children depend for provision when widowhood or orphan- 

 age may be their lot. Of the architectural merits of most of the 

 buildings named, we have Iiad the opportunity of speaking on 

 other occasions ; we have now to add to our list the office of the 

 Imperial Insurance Company. 



The Imperial Fire Insurance Company was formed in 1803, 

 under a deed of settlement by wliich the capital was declared to 

 consist of 2,400 shares, of £500 each, but on which, only ten per 

 cent, has ever been called. The invested capital now exceeds half 

 a million, to secure a permanent dividend of twelve per cent., 

 payable half-yearly, independently of bonuses which have hitherto 

 been equal to as much more, and accounts for the shares being of 

 greater value than those of any other existing similar establish- 

 ment. The Life Office (wliich, although bearingthe same name and 

 carrying on its business under the same roof, is a totally distinct 

 concern) was formed under a similar deed of settlement, in 1820. 

 Its capital consists of 7,500 shares, of £l00 each, on which only 

 ten per cent, has ever been paid up ; to secure a dividend on 

 which, payable annually, an ample capital is invested in the 

 puldic funds, independently of an accumulated premium fund now 

 e.xceeding £700,000, and bonuses which are declared quin- 

 quennially. 



The directors of these two companies, finding the accomodation 

 afforded by the premises they have hitherto occupied in Sun-court, 

 Cornhill, inadequate to the wants of the respective offices, de- 

 termined, in September 1846, to erect others on the site they had 

 purchased at the corner of Old Broad-street and Tbreadneedle- 

 street; for which purpose, several architects were invited to 

 furnish designs, and having done so, Mr. Shaw, one of the official 

 referees was called in to assist the directors in their selection : 

 that resolved on the adoption of Mr. Gibson's design, now nearly 

 completed by the Messrs. Piper, who took the contract for the 

 erection. 



Mr. Gibson is the architect of the Baptist Chapel in Bloomsbury- 

 street, of which we lately gave the elevation, and who may consider 

 himself pre-eminently fortunate in being able to make his profes- 

 sional dsbiH in two public structures, produced simultaneously. 

 The one which forms the subject of our engraving this month, is 

 the Imperial Insurance Office, which stands at the corner of Old 

 Broad-street and Threadneedle-street. It is an astylar composi- 

 tion, of the Italian Palazzo style, executed in Portland stone, 

 and has unquestionably made a very great improvement in that 

 part of the city, if only by removing what used to be a very ugly 

 and inconvenient sharp corner ; in lieu of which, that angle is now 

 cut off, and is made to form a distinct and distinguished compart- 

 ment of the general design, and is so placed as to present itself to 



the eye in a very striking manner ; and, with its two neighbouring 

 buildings— the Hall of Commerce on one side, and the Mentor 

 Assurance Office on the other— forms a rather important architectu- 

 ral group, ni which there is certainly no lack of variety,— the 

 Iniperial Office being as studiedly ornate as tlie other t'vo are 

 studiedly simple not to say sexere and cold in stj-le. Or perhaps 

 we should qualify our opinion by saying, that the facade of the HaU 

 of Commerce would look somewliat cold and bare a'san architectu- 

 ral composition, were it not for the panel frieze, which is in a double 

 sense a.rel,ej, and which while it sets off the fapade, is in turn set 

 off by Its very subdued tone of decoration. A similar universal 

 degree and mode of embellishment in point of sculpture, is also 

 a trait in tlie design of the Imperial Office, all the key-stones 

 ot its ground-floor windows being enriched with car\'ed masks or 

 heads upon them— not a mere repetition of each other but varying 

 in character,— while the large panel in the upper part ot the 

 south-west compartment, between the Threadneedle-street and 

 the Broad-street fronts, will display a relievo, consistinrr of two 

 sitting female figures, considerably above life-size witli three 

 shields between them, bearing the arms of England, Scotland and 

 Ireland :— which piece of sculpture, and the kev-stones just men- 

 tioned (amounting in all to fourteen in the two fronts), are by 

 Mr. Thomas, an artist extensively employed at the new Palace of 

 Westminster. Highly satisfactory is it to perceive such attention 

 to artistic finish bestowed upon a building which, had it been 

 erected some dozen or fifteen years ago, would have been turned 

 out of hand very differently,—' both with the minimum of detail 

 and with the minimum of design bestowed upon tliat., as witness 

 the Alliance Office, in BartholomcM-lane, and the '' Atlas " in 

 Cheapside,— or the City Club-house, in Broad-street; all of which 



may claim tlie merit of being exceedingly simple and unartificial 



provided unartifical and iinartixtic be synonymous and convertible 

 terms. The Imperial Office has been' enriched with great pro- 

 priety, the ornaments being in perfect keeping throughout, and 

 at the same time they are profuse and well-executed. 



We can now only allude to the interior, as it is not yet quite 

 finished ; but every attention appears to have been bestowed upon 

 the official arrangements, and e\'ery precaution taken to render the 

 Offices fire-proof. The " strong-room " has been fitted by Mr. Lead- 

 beater with wrought-iron doors, filled with a chemica'l compound 

 for making them jierfectly fire-proof, and ventilating gates. Tliis 

 room appears to be a perfect pattern of safety. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK, 

 FASCICULUS LXXXIII. 



** I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter a^ the winds. 

 To blow on whom I please.*' 



I. One of the essays in the piquant little volume, entitled 

 " Friends in Council," is upon the subject of Public Improvements. 

 As to the essay itself, it is disappointingly brief, and deals too 

 much in, or rather is confined to, abstract generalities. There 

 are, howe\er, one or two remarks introduced in the subsequent 

 conversation between the " Friends" tliemselves, that deserve to 

 be pointed out. The first of them which I select would furnish 

 matter for a discourse or paper of some length: — ^'- Mitcerton: 

 ' There is one thing I forgot to say, — that we want more individual 

 will in building, I think. As it is at present, a great builder 

 takes a plot of ground, and turns out innumerable houses, all 

 alike — the same faults and merits running through each : thus 

 adding to the general duliiess of things.' " — Such system of house- 

 manufacturing for the market operates, it must be confessed, 

 very injuriously for architecture. A single design is made to serve 

 for scores — perhaps hundreds, of houses ; nor is much study be- 

 stowed upon that pattern or matrix design. So that it provides a 

 sufficiently commodious dwelling, with all the useful routine ac- 

 commodations looked for in a '■ respectable" house, and a sufficiently 

 tasty appearance externally — for your builders deal largely in the 

 "tasty,' though not in the tasteful, — nothing more is tiiought of. 

 London houses have no individuality : never do you find a single 

 original or pet idea carefully worked out in any one of them. One 

 advantage of this is, that you are as well acquainted with every 

 nook and corner of your neighbour's house as )ou are with your 

 own ; another, that you are relieved from all responsibility on the 

 score of taste, it being that of the confounded builders, — not 

 your own. 



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