The State Insurance Building is at 14

Dale Street Dale Street is a thoroughfare in Liverpool city centre, England. The street was one of the original seven streets that made up the medieval borough founded by King John in 1207, together with Castle Street, Old Hall Street, Chapel Street, ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England. Half of the building was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. Both its external architecture and its internal decoration are elaborate.

History

The building was constructed in 1906 to a design by Walter Aubrey Thomas, who also designed the

Royal Liver Building The Royal Liver Building is a Grade I listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's '' Three Graces'', which line th ...

and Tower Buildings. It was originally symmetrical about a central

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

, but the half of the building, the part extending towards North John Street, was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. The building continues to be used as offices, with a restaurant on the ground floor. In the 1920s the downstairs of the building was used as a popular dance hall and venue. After the second World War it was closed and later reopened as a Debenhams department store. In the 1980s it transformed again into a popular night club and rave hot spot, using the open plan hall downstairs to set up a stage for live music, but later closed down again. It is now utilised only four times a year as a special event night club and rave venue which still holds the original marbled walls and gold painted ceiling.

Architecture

Exterior

Constructed in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

with columns of polished red

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

on the ground floor, the building has three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. Its architectural style is described as "

flamboyant Gothic Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...

", and as "wiry, sinuous Gothic". The left hand bay has five storeys. Its ground floor contains a narrow doorway with an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

arch and

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

in the

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

s. A stair turret rises above the doorway. The first floor contains a balustraded balcony over which is a triple-arched

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

. Above this are three storeys with ogee-headed windows containing tracery. The top storey is octagonal and is surmounted by a pierced

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

. The other two bays have three storeys. The ground floor contains an ogee-headed doorway, wider than that in the left hand bay. The first and second floors have two two-light windows, and the third floor has two three-light windows. Between the second and third floors is a panel inscribed with the word "Insurance". Above the top storey is a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d attic containing two narrow round-headed windows with tracery above them. Between the bays are fluted colonnettes.

Interior

Inside the building is a central courtyard with a glazed

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

. Around this are galleries with wooden balustrades. The ground floor rooms have ceilings decorated with plasterwork and supported by metal columns. Between the columns is blind arcading decorated with multi-coloured

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

. The arcades contain panels with circular plaster

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

s by Alfred R. Martin. The reliefs depict themes from traditional stories. In the former entrance hall are more reliefs, these depicting castles. The building is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

References

{{Liverpool B&S Grade II listed buildings in Liverpool Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside Commercial buildings completed in 1906 1906 establishments in England

History

Architecture

Exterior

Interior

See also

References