Sunlight Chambers, Newcastle

Sunlight Chambers is a listed residential and commercial building on Bigg Market in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was designed by architects William & Segar Owen in a modified Baroque style and was named after Lever Brothers' Sunlight detergent brand.

History

Lever Brothers was founded in 1895 by brothers William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, and James Darcy Lever. Together with chemist William Hough, the brothers created a soap that used glycerin and vegetable oils such as palm oil instead of tallow. The resulting soap was free-lathering. At first, it was named Honey Soap but later became "Sunlight Soap".
In 1901, the brothers hired architects William & Segar Owen to design a building for the Newcastle branch of their company. It was constructed between 1901 and 1902 and was named after Lever Brothers' then-famous soap brand.

Design

The building is constructed in a modified Baroque style using sandstone ashlar. The building features a frieze depicting harvest and industry. Its roof consists of French tiles and its architrave-featuring windows are dormer at roof level.

Sister building in Dublin

At almost the same time, Lever Brothers built a branch in Dublin, which they also called Sunlight Chambers. Although the Irish building was designed in an Italianate style rather than a Baroque style, both Sunlight Chambers feature a characteristic circumferential frieze.