Arthur Beresford Pite - 30 Euston Square

30 Euston Square

In 1906 Pite began his commission to build the headquarters of the London, Edinburgh and Glasgow Assurance Company at 30 Euston Square. It was a magnificent building of Portland stone, Grecian in style and spanning seven floors. The building took two years to build and was opened on 22 January 1908. The main entrance hall was decorated with yellow and sage green Doulton Parian ware, tiled arches and a curious ceiling of dentils. The mosaic floor features an astrological design. The director’s boardrooms on the first floor are lined in oak with oak strip floors and stunning marble fireplaces as their focal point. The basement housed the records for the Assurance Company; the walls are three feet thick in places and further protected by steel “bomb blast” doors. The new office building was also fitted with a passenger lift, electric lighting and oil-fired central heating. Considerably modern for its time, Pite’s detail was meticulous; each window arch was lined with white glazed brick, which can only be seen if you lean out of the window backwards! Five light wells, also lined in white glazed brick, flooded the lower floors with light. Further light was provided to the basement level by skylights. Pite was asked to add further extensions fronting Melton Street almost as soon as the Euston Square building was finished. He continued to enlarge the building for almost 20 years with the addition of the 9 Melton Street tower being his final work there. With the widening of Euston Road in the late 1920s the final expansion took place; the architect this time was not Pite but one of his contemporaries, Josiah Gunton. The London, Edinburgh and Glasgow Assurance Company had moved out in 1910, the new occupants were the National Amalgamated Approved Society. The building is Grade II* listed due to its significant architectural importance.