Oriel Chambers

Oriel Chambers is the world's first metal framed glass curtain walled building. Designed by architect Peter Ellis and built in 1864, it comprises 43,000 sq ft (4,000 m) set over five floors. A Grade 1 Listed Building, it is located on Water Street near to the town hall in Liverpool, England. Oriel Chambers, and the architect's only other known building at 16 Cook Street, are amongst the city's precursors of modernist architecture. 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" which led to the disheartened Ellis abandoning architecture. Today it looks a little different, combining its period...