Building record 0677701000 - Office building, Pitstone Cement Works

Grade II. Office. 1937. Peter Lind, contractor, for F L Smidth. Reinforced concrete frame with coarse pebble-aggregate, now painted white; flat asphalt concrete roof. PLAN: Rectangular plan with central entrance hall containing staircase, and with axial corridors on each floor to offices. International Modern style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement. 6-bay concrete frame, the projecting piers supporting floors and flat roof, the first floor and roof cantilevered out as deeply projecting canopies around the whole building, interrupted only at the back [west] where there is a large full-height wall of glass bricks in the wider central bay lighting the hall. The ground floor over the low basement windows also projects, but not so much. The bays between the piers are taken up by large metal-frame windows; the entrance, set back in the centre bay on the east front, is approached by a later flight of stairs; the stairs on the south end are also later. INTERIOR: Large 2-storey central hall has a fine concrete staircase, its sinuously curved solid balustrades tubular handrails coiled around cylindrical newels as spirals; the staircase rises from the basement to the landing balcony overlooking the hall. The glass brick wall lighting the hall has what are reputedly the original cacti growing in front of it. The internal partitions are glazed metal frames. SOURCE: Buildings of England, Pevsner and Williamson (B5).