White Star Building

White Star Building (Albion House) James Street
1898
Grade II*

Thomas Ismay, proprietor of the White Star Line, commissioned Richard Norman Shaw to design new headquarters for the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company in 1894.

Shaw had already built Dawpool, the great tragically demolished house, overlooking theDeeestuary at Thurstaston for Ismay in 1882-86.

The White Star Building was the first of the new breed of giant office blocks built in the city.

For the exterior, Shaw reworked his design for New Scotland Yard, facing the building in contrasting bands of brick and Portland stone, set on a granite base. 

The interior is especially remarkable for its raw display of iron girders, stanchions and jack arches lined with fireproof bricks, with all the rivets and bolts emphasised for effect, although it is currently hidden by suspended ceilings and partition walls. 

This would not have been possible in London where regulations required the cladding of structural ironwork for fire safety, but under Liverpool's more commercial and laissez-faire regimen, such restrictions were not applied.