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{{for|the building in Kingston upon Hull housing WISE|Oriel Chambers, Kingston upon Hull}}
{{Short description|Listed building in Liverpool, England}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{coord|53.4065|-2.9932|display=title|region:GB_type:landmark}}
{{Infobox building
| name = Oriel Chambers
| image = Oriel Chambers, Liverpool 2018.jpg
| caption = Front view of Oriel Chambers
| coordinates = {{coord|53.4065|-2.9932|display=inline}}
| location_town = [[Liverpool]]
| location_country = United Kingdom
| architect = [[Peter Ellis (architect)|Peter Ellis]]
| years_built = 1864
| style = [[Victorian architecture]]
| designations = {{Designation list
| embed = yes
| designation1 = Grade I Listed Building
| designation1_offname = Oriel Chambers
| designation1_date = 12 July 1966
| designation1_number = {{NHLE|num=1291943|short=y|postscript=none}}
}}
}}

'''Oriel Chambers''' is an office building located on [[Water Street, Liverpool|Water Street]] near the [[Liverpool Town Hall|town hall]] in [[Liverpool]], England. It was the world's first building featuring a metal-framed glass [[Curtain wall (architecture)|curtain wall]], which has since become a defining feature of [[skyscraper]]s around the world.<ref>{{cite news |last=Cuss |first=Helena |title=Britain's top 10 maverick buildings |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/britains-greatest-maverick-building |publisher=[[Royal Academy of Arts]] |date=1 April 2016 |access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref> Designed by architect [[Peter Ellis (architect)|Peter Ellis]] and built in 1864, it has been [[Grade I listed]] since 1966 due to its outstanding importance.

==History==
[[Peter Ellis (architect)|Peter Ellis]] won the commission for Oriel Chambers by competition<ref name=Caruso>{{cite web |last=Caruso |first=Adam |date=8 January 2010 |title=Adam Caruso on the impact of Liverpool's pioneering Ellis Buildings |url=https://www.bdonline.co.uk/inspirations/adam-caruso-on-the-impact-of-liverpools-pioneering-ellis-buildings/3155796.article |website=Building Design |url-access=subscription |access-date=11 June 2025}}</ref> and completed it in 1864 as evidenced by the building's [[inscription]] ''A.D. 1864'' in the [[gable]]. It comprises {{convert|43000|sqft|m2|abbr=on}} of floor space set over five storeys.<ref name="Oriel Chambers History">{{cite web |title=Oriel Chambers History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123180956/https://www.orielchambers.co.uk/about/ |archive-date=23 November 2021 |url-status=deviated |url=https://www.orielchambers.co.uk/about/ |publisher=Oriel Chambers |access-date=11 December 2023}}</ref> Ellis maximised the influx of light by employing a grid of [[oriel window]]s, which became the building's defining feature.

Initially, it was not well received. ''[[Building (magazine)|The Builder]]'' of 20 January 1866 criticised it:<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Builder|title=Architecture in Liverpool|pages=40–41|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t4bp57f2g&view=1up&seq=52&size=125&q1=abortion|volume=24|date=20 January 1866}}</ref>
<blockquote>''The plainest brick warehouse in town is infinitely superior as a building to that large agglomeration of protruding plate-glass bubbles in Water Street termed Oriel Chambers. Did we not see this vast abortion – which would be depressing were it not ludicrous – with our own eyes, we should have doubted the possibility of its existence. Where and in what are their beauties supposed to lie?''</blockquote>

However, the potential of Ellis's design was not lost on all of his contemporaries. [[John Wellborn Root]] studied in Liverpool as a teenaged boy, having been sent there by his father to be safe from the [[American Civil War]] following the [[Atlanta campaign]] in 1864. In all likelihood, he studied the then-brand-new Oriel Chambers and put the lessons learned to good use when he developed into an important architect of the [[Chicago school (architecture)|Chicago School of Architecture]], exporting Ellis's ideas across the [[Atlantic Ocean]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Water Street / 4 |url=http://www.liverpool.engineeringwalks.com/LiverpoolEngWalk/9.html |website=Liverpool Engineering Walks |access-date=12 October 2013 |archive-date=5 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005091907/http://www.liverpool.engineeringwalks.com/LiverpoolEngWalk/9.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Long rows of [[bay window]]s (of which oriels are a type) characterise some of [[Burnham and Root]]'s 1880s American [[skyscraper]]s.

[[File:Liverpool 40828.jpg|thumb|right|Side view of Oriel Chambers]]

More importantly, Oriel Chambers, and Ellis's building at [[16 Cook Street]] in Liverpool, are amongst the precursors of [[modernist architecture]] for another reason. In addition to the extensive use of glass on their [[facade]]s, both boast metal-framed glass curtain walls toward the courtyards, which makes them two of the world's first buildings to include this feature. Both buildings rely on H-section iron columns at the perimeter, which support the floors and cladding. Ellis's method for cladding was, however, not adopted by Burnham and Root: their [[Monadnock Building]] of 1891 has its distinctive bay windows still set in load-bearing brickwork.

Recognising its modernity, unsurprisingly, the critical assessment of Oriel Chambers was far more favourable in the 20th century. [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] called it "one of the most remarkable buildings of its date in Europe"<ref>Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''South Lancashire (The Buildings of England)'', 1969, p. 177.</ref> and in his earlier book, ''Pioneers of Modern Design'', describes it thus:<ref>Originally published as ''Pioneers of the Modern Movement'' in 1936; 2nd edition, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1949; revised and partly rewritten, Penguin Books, 1960; here quoted after the [https://books.google.com/books?id=tIZ2ydHd9woC&q=oriel+chambers 2005 ed., p. 105.]</ref>
<blockquote>The delicacy of the ironwork in the plate-glass oriel windows and the curtain walling at the back with the vertical supports retracted yet visible from outside is almost unbelievably ahead of its time.</blockquote>

Architect [[Adam Caruso]] described Oriel Chambers as follows:<ref name=Caruso/>
<blockquote>Its membranous windows are almost an expression of the open space of the interior pressing out into the space of the street.</blockquote>

==Today==
Today the building looks a little different, combining its period architecture with a 1950s extension added after German aerial bombing destroyed a small section during the [[Second World War]].

In 2006 it was purchased from DCT Developments by [[Bruntwood]] for just over £5 million who then spent £750,000 refurbishing the building.<ref name="LBN-Sep19">{{cite news |last=McDonough |first=Tony |title=New owner of Liverpool's historic Oriel Chambers plans major upgrade |url=https://lbndaily.co.uk/new-owner-liverpools-historic-oriel-chambers-plans-major-upgrade/ |access-date=25 September 2019 |work=Liverpool Business News |date=25 September 2019}}</ref> Bruntwood sold the building in 2019 to Yakel Property Investment who planned to undertake works to update the building.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}{{update-inline|date=November 2025}}

The building's primary tenant is a set of [[barrister]]s' chambers, which has been in occupation in various parts since 1965.<ref name="Oriel Chambers History"/>

==Popular culture==
Oriel Chambers and 16 Cook Street were featured in the first episode of [[John Grundy (television presenter)|John Grundy]]'s television series ''[[Grundy's Northern Pride]]'', which focused on buildings in the north of England.<ref name="Oriel Chambers History"/>

==See also==
*[[Architecture of Liverpool]]
*[[Grade I listed buildings in Liverpool]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Liverpool B&S}}

[[Category:Grade I listed buildings in Liverpool]]
[[Category:Grade I listed office buildings]]
[[Category:Chicago school (architecture)]]

Oriel Chambers - Revision history

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