Holland House in The City

Continuing on from last Thursday's post...
Holland House, 1-4 Bury Street, London EC3A 5AT.
This was the first steel framed buildingto be constructed in in Europe and ooh... I love it...
One hundred years ago, who'd have known that the windows on this beautifully-designed office building would one dayreflect one of The City's most iconic glass buildings...?

Holland House was built during WW1. It was designed by the Dutch architect H. P. Berlage for the Rotterdam-based William H Müller & Co; a shipping and ore-mining company working out of Spain and North Africa – this is is shown by the wonderful stylised granite sculpture by J Mendes Da Costaof a ship powering through the waves on the rear corner of the building opposite Cunard Place. These four pics show details of the lobby/reception area at the front of the building designed in the Art Deco style by Bart Van Der Leck featuring fabulous tiles, mosaics, metalwork and lighting Apart from a lovely art deco staircase leading down to the basement, the entrance at the rear has not retained the original features, and looks really bland in comparison.

The whole building is clad in hand-made dark eau-de-nil coloured tiles. I love the way the windows are obliterated when one walks along the pavement; only the columns of tiles can be seen, making a wonderful geometric pattern. Pic2 shows a glimpse of the mahogany panelled offices on the first floor using wood reclaimed/stripped from Muller's ships.At the rear (pic3) there are some lovely balconied tiers.More pics and info here.

See also Summit House on Red Lion Square – built a few years later in a similar style – solid, beautiful functionality and classic no-messing design.