Imperial Chemical House

Imperial Chemical House is a Grade II listed building situated on Millbank, London, England, near the west end of Lambeth Bridge. It was designed by Sir Frank Baines in the neoclassical style of the inter-war years, and constructed between 1927 and 1929 as the headquarters for the newly created Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Thames House, the next building south along Millbank, across Horseferry Road, was also designed by Baines and constructed at the same time.

Both buildings were built to house offices for the newly formed ICI, created in 1926 after the mergers of Nobel Industries, United Alkali, British Dyestuffs and Brunner Mond. The buildings were completed in the aftermath of the 1928 Thames flood, and Lambeth Bridge was also replaced.

Imperial Chemical House was divided in 1987 to create Norwest House at 9 Millbank, and Nobel House at 17 Smith Square. ICI moved out in the 1990s.

Imperial Chemical House has five main storeys, with a four-storey attic and pitched leaded roof. It was constructed on a steel frame, with the ground floor façades faced in grey granite. The higher floors are faced in Portland stone, rusticated on the second to fifth stories. There are 27 bays including three doors along the Millbank façade, seven bays including one door in the corner splay at the junction of Millbank and Horseferry Road, and five bays along Horseferry Road. To the rear, part of the building faces onto Smith Square.

The main entrance at the centre of the Millbank façade rises two storeys, with a decorative carved stone door surround encasing a pair of large panelled doors 20 feet (6.1 m) high and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, plated in nickel-copper alloy "silveroid" bearing designs by William Bateman Fagan. The six door panels on the left showing scenes of primitive man, and the six panels on the right showing scenes of modern man.

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