Oriel Chambers
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| Oriel Chambers | |
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| Building information | |
|---|---|
| Town | Liverpool |
| Country | England |
| Architect | Peter Ellis |
| Construction start date | 1864 |
| Style | Modernist architecture |
Oriel Chambers is a Grade 1 Listed Building located on Water Street, near to the town hall in Liverpool, England. The building, a work by Peter Ellis, was built in 1864 and comprises 43,000 sq.ft set over 5-floors.
Oriel Chambers, and the architect's only other known building at 16 Cook Street, are amongst the city's precursors of modernist architecture.[citation needed] However its simplified forms and large windows meant that the building initially courted controversy, being described as "an agglomeration of great glass bubbles" and even "a great abortion"[citation needed] which led to the disheartened Ellis abandoning architecture.
Today it looks a little different, combining its period architecture with a 1950s extension, which was added to the building after it was bombed during World War II.
In more recent times, the building was purchased from DCT Developments by Bruntwood for just over £5 million on 17 March 2006. Bruntwood was then expected to spend 2007/08 refurbishing the building at a cost of £750,000.[citation needed]
The building's primary tenant is a set of barristers' chambers, which have been in occupation in various parts of the building since 1965.[citation needed]
[edit] In popular culture
The building, and 16 Cook Street, featured in the ITV (Granada / Tyne Tees) television programme Grundy's Northern Pride, looking at John Grundy's favourite buildings in the north of England, aired on 9 January 2007.
