Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		North British & Mercantile Ins Co Johannesburg, Gauteng COWIN, POWERS and ELLIS: Architect

Date: 1927 Type: Offices Status: Unknown Street: Commissioner/Simmonds Sts

Cumming George 1933 THIS building was erected for the Head Offices of this Company in South Africa and it is situated in Commissioner Street opposite the Corner House. The entrance opens into a large hall with domed plaster ceiling and the walls are lined with panels of various tints. In order to provide as much space as possible on each floor for office accommodation, the lavatories for the whole building are placed on the top storey; this ensures better ventilation for them, and although unusual, it is not a disability as a number of lifts are provided in the building. The facades are faced with cast concrete blocks and the construction is in reinforced concrete throughout with steel windows and teak woodwork internally. The cost of the building was £37,000. Reinforcing Steel supplied and fixed: Reinforcing Steel Co., Ltd. Lifts: Waygood-Otis (S.A.) Ltd. Ironmongery: W. R. Boustred Ltd. Electrical Installation: British General Electric Co., Ltd. Rubber Tiling, Stair Treads, etc., and Paraflor Flooring: North British Rubber Co. (S.A.) Ltd. Central Heating: A. E. Barker. All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. Books and articles that reference North British & Mercantile Ins Co Cumming-George, L. 1933. Architecture in South Africa - Volume One. Cape Town: The Speciality Press of S.A. Ltd.. pg 40 ill, 41