London Guarantee Building
| London Guarantee Building | |
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| London Guaranty & Accident Building | |
The London Guarantee Building. Behind it is Mather Tower, to the left is 333 North Michigan, and to the right is 35 East Wacker. View looking south from across the Chicago River.
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| Location | 85 E. Wacker Drive at North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41°53′17″N 87°37′30″W / 41.888°N 87.625°WCoordinates: 41°53′17″N 87°37′30″W / 41.888°N 87.625°W |
| Built | 1923 |
| Architect | Alfred S. Alschuler |
| Designated | April 16, 1996 |
 Location of London Guarantee Building in Chicago
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The London Guarantee Building or London Guaranty & Accident Building is a historic 1923 commercial skyscraper whose primary occupant since 2016 is the LondonHouse Chicago Hotel Formerly known as the , it is located near the Loop in Chicago, and is one of four 1920s skyscrapers that surround the Michigan Avenue Bridge (the others are the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower and 333 North Michigan Avenue) and is a contributing property to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District. It stands on part of the former site of Fort Dearborn and the building was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.
The London Guarantee & Accident Building was designed by Chicago architect Alfred S. Alschuler and completed in 1923 for the London Guarantee & Accident Company, an insurance firm that was then its principal occupant. The top of the building resembles the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, but it is supposedly modelled after the . It is located in the Michigan–Wacker Historic District. The building stands on the property formerly occupied by the Hoyt Building from 1872 until 1921. The LondonHouse name is an homage to the first owner of the 1923 Beaux Arts tower: the London Guaranty & Accident Co., an insurance company.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, the studios of Chicago's popular WLS (AM) radio were located on the fifth floor of the building. For several decades, Paul Harvey performed his daily syndicated radio show from studios on the fourth floor. The building was also famous from the 1950s through the early 1970s for The London House, the famous Chicago jazz nightclub and steakhouse that was located on the west side of the building's first floor; it had its own entrance on Wacker Drive. It was one of the foremost jazz clubs in the country, once home to such luminaries as Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, Cannonball Adderley, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Carroll, Bobby Short and many others.
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