The Central Atrium and Banking Hall
1901, restored 2001
The heart of the building is a tall rectangular well that rises from the ground floor to the skylight, with a gallery running around it at every level. On the ground floor this was the public banking hall, where clerks sat behind counters and customers queued on the marble. The counters are gone, but the floor remains, an inlaid pattern of coloured marble with a large medallion at the centre, and the mezzanine above still has the wrought iron railings through which managers once kept an eye on the hall below.
Look at the ironwork. The balustrades are made of scrolling plant forms with gilded rosettes at intervals, and each floor repeats the pattern so that the atrium reads as a single vertical composition. The plaster ceilings of the side galleries have shallow domes and ornamental brackets in the shape of shells and leaves, and the columns are finished in stucco to look like stone. Every surface was designed to impress, and to say to a coffee planter opening an account that his money would be safe here.
Today the hall is the main exhibition space, and the design of each show has to work around the atrium. Curators have hung enormous banners from the balconies, built pavilions on the floor and, on one occasion, filled the whole well with a suspended sculpture. When the space is empty, between exhibitions, the CCBB sometimes leaves the doors open so that people can simply come in and look, and it is worth doing exactly that. Stand on the medallion, turn slowly, and count the floors.
Did You Know? Between exhibitions the atrium is sometimes left completely empty, and the CCBB opens the doors so that people can come in just to look at the building.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.