Chartered Accountants' Hall

Chartered Accountants' Hall is a Grade II* listed building located at 1 Moorgate Place in the City of London. It is the headquarters of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW). The Hall is one of the richest examples of late Victorian architecture in the City and has been praised for its seamless integration of sculpture. It established the fame of its architect, John Belcher. Chartered Accountants' Hall was Belcher's first building in a more monumental Baroque Revival style, drawing on Baroque architecture which he had studied while travelling in Europe. Some sources attribute the building as a joint design by Belcher in conjunction with Arthur Beresford Pite, who was a partner in Belcher's practice. The two men were friends and admired each other's work. A pupil of Belcher's at the time claimed that Pite's energy and personality had "very strongly" influenced Belcher and had left its impression above all on the Chartered Accountants building. In The Alliance of Sculpture and Architecture (1993), the authors begin a discussion of the influence of Pite upon Belcher's new Baroque style for the Hall by stating:

To what extent the design was the work of Arthur Beresford Pite [...] has never been satisfactorily established.