The White Star Building, or Albion House

Albion House, or the White Star Building, from a Flickr set by R-P-M

Looking back across the road from the Museum of Liverpool, I exclaimed: "That must be Norman Shaw".

Well, it is: the White Star Building, the head office of the White Star Line, owners of the Titanic.Properly named Albion House, it is instantly recognisable as Norman Shaw if you have ever seen any Ealing Studios films about London coppers: the original New Scotland Yard on the Enbankment and this building are siblings.

The interior is apparently "remarkable for its raw display of iron girders, stanchions and jack arches lined with fireproof bricks, with all the rivets and bolts emphasised for effect, although it is currently hidden by suspended ceilings and partition walls.

This would not have been possible in London where regulations required the cladding of structural ironwork for fire safety, but under Liverpool's more commercial and laissez-faire regimen, such restrictions were not applied."
(courtesy of Liverpool's World Heritage Site: http://www.liverpoolworldheritage.com/visitingthewhs/areas/castlestreet/whitestarbuilding.asp)