Victoria House: from life insurance to the sciences of life

By Thomas Lane2024-02-29T07:00:00

The grand former headquarters of the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society is being converted into a state-of-the-art life sciences laboratory. Thomas Lane reports on an unlikely reinvention

Built in 1932 as the headquarters for an insurance company, reinvented as a contemporary, corporate office by Will Alsop in 2003 and now undergoing transformation into a life science lab, Victoria House in London’s Bloomsbury could be a contender for Britain’s most flexible building.

It may also be the most unlikely candidate for a life sciences research facility. Completed in 1932 for the Liverpool and Victoria insurance company, the building is a grand, neo-classical affair with an impressive, triple-height, marble-lined central hall complete with Ionic columns and bronze art deco detailing. The building is vast, occupying a whole city block between Southampton Row and Bloomsbury Gardens.

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