Prudential Assurance Building 1 (6266184307)

Holborn, Waterhouse Square, 142 Holborn Bars, EC1 - geograph

Holborn Bars, also known as the Prudential Assurance Building is a large red

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

Victorian building on the north side (138–142) of

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its roots ...

in Camden at the boundary of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, England. The block is bounded by Holborn to the south, Brooke Street to the west, Leather Lane to the east and Beauchamp Street to the north. It is currently occupied by De Vere Venues and also the London office of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

at 1 Waterhouse Square.

History

Located close to the Holborn Bar city boundary of the City of London Holborn Bars was built on the site of the former

Furnival's Inn Furnival's Inn was an Inn of Chancery which formerly stood on the site of the present Holborn Bars building (the former Prudential Assurance Company building) in Holborn, London, England. History Furnival's Inn was founded about 1383 when Wi ...

building of the

Inns of Chancery The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

. It was designed in

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style for the Prudential Assurance Society by architects initially

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

and his son

Paul Waterhouse Paul Waterhouse (29 October 1861 – 19 December 1924) was a British architect. Early life Paul Waterhouse was born on 29 October 1861 in Manchester, England. He was the son and business partner of Alfred Waterhouse, an architect who designed ...

who became a partner in his father's firm from 1891, and built by

Holland, Hannen & Cubitts Holland, Hannen & Cubitts was a major building firm responsible for many of the great buildings of London. History The company was formed from the fusion of two well-established building houses that had competed throughout the later decades of ...

in phases between 1876 and 1901. The interior design of the main entrance hall was completed in 1906. The building was modified between 1930 and 1932 by E. M. Joseph, who introduced

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

features, and expanded again in 1993 by

EPR Architects EPR Architects is a London-based architectural practice that originally started business under the names of its founders Elsom Pack & Roberts. It is known for commercial, residential and hotel projects. Cecil Elsom CBE (17 January 1912 – 3 Apr ...

to a floor area of 34,931 square metres. Prudential moved out of the building in 1999 but retained ownership of it.

Description

The building originally featured a library, restaurant, chapel, hall, rooftop promenade and a women's entrance. It was electrically lit and featured hot running water. The complex now encloses a courtyard, Waterhouse Square, named after the original architect. The building was

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

Grade II* on 3 March 1972.

Tenants

Tenants include: * Public Relations firm

Weber Shandwick Weber Shandwick is a marketing communications firm formed in 2001 by merging the Weber Group, Shandwick International and BSMG. The company is part of global agency network Interpublic Group (IPG), as part of the parent company's IPG DXTRA opera ...

* Law firm

Gowling WLG Gowling WLG is a multinational law firm formed by the combination of Canada-based Gowlings and UK-based Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co in February 2016, in the first multinational law firm combination co-led by a Canadian firm. Gowling WLG ranks at ...

WeWork WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated of space, including in the United States and Canada, in 756 locatio ...

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

* Prudential subsidiary M&G

References

External links

Images and tenants
{{coord , 51, 31, 6, N, 0, 6, 36, W, type:landmark_region:GB-CMD, display=title Alfred Waterhouse buildings Buildings and structures completed in 1901 Gothic Revival architecture in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Mass media company headquarters in the United Kingdom Office buildings in London