Description

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1900/57/42

SOHO
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET W1
Palladium House

ARGYLL STREET
1-4

(Formerly listed as: SOHO, ARGYLL STREET W1, 1-6)
(Formerly listed as: SOHO,GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, IDEAL HOUSE)

16-JAN-81

II
1-4 Argyll Street. Formerly known as Ideal House.
Corner office block. 1928-29 by Raymond Hood in collaboration with Gordon Jeeves, extended northwards in 1935. Polished black granite facing, metal casement windows, enamel trimmings; flat roof not visible. Seven storeys with a recessed attic storey. Seven windows wide on upper floors to Great Marlborough Street, eleven windows to Argyll Street where they are arranged in spaced groups of four and seven bays, reflecting two phases of construction. Ground floor with large flat arched display windows and doorways pierced without moulding but emphasised by inlaid frame of bronze champlevé enamelled plates in formalised lotus and jazz-moderne geometric patterns in a range of yellows and oranges, greens and gold. Plain openings with metal casements to upper floors. The champlevé motifs appear again as a frieze pierced by the sixth floor windows and reappear on the stepped and coved main cornice and similarly coved attic cornice, each of Egyptian inspiration.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

HISTORY: this building was constructed for the National Radiator Company, and was a reduced version of the American Radiator Building on Bryant Park, Manhattan, the New York premises of the National Radiator Corporation by Raymond Hood, the parent company of the English firm. The black and gold colours reflect the livery of the company. It comprised a ground floor show room with lettable offices above. Originally the building comprised the southernmost four bays, but was extended by a further seven bays to the north in 1935. A very unusual instance of a London-scaled American tower block design, embellished with the sort of Art Deco or 'Moderne' details in fashion following the Paris Exhibition of 1925. This is the only European building of Raymond Hood, described by A. Saint as the 'wittiest and most thoughtful of the inter-war New York skyscraper architects'. The enamel surround to the Argyll Street entrance was removed and is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Listing NGR: TQ2913981129

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Ideal House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5987952

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy