Second impressions: In the lobbies of London business buildings

McCann Erickson

McCann Erickson, the advertising agency, has called 7-11 Herbrand Street in Bloomsbury its London home since 2000, but the story behind the Art Deco building reaches back much further. The multi-storey structure, designed in 1931 by architects Wallis, Gilbert and Partners, which also created the landmark Victoria coach station and the Hoover factory at Perivale. It was a Daimler limousine-hire garage until the early 1970s, providing a chauffeured service to the wealthy.

Inside, light floods the building from the glass roof of the 50ft octagonal atrium. The linear art-deco design is accented in the white, gridded windows that face the indoor courtyard. Skinny trees in large pots lean up against the crisp, white walls while visitors waiting for their meeting can gaze up at the sky through the glass ceiling.

London Stock Exchange

One of the world's oldest bourses, the London Stock Exchange's roots date back to a City coffee house at the end of the 17th century. Since 2004, the LSE has been housed in a grand building on Paternoster Square near St. Paul's. The stock exchange swapped its former tower at Old Broad Street for a building without a trading floor but with the electronic infrastructure necessary to keep pace with the changing nature of global trading.

The glass atrium inside the London Stock Exchange stretches up seven floors past a video wall streaming market news and ticker information that ribbons around the edge of the stairwell. At 8am, Rolet's Globe - the lobby's centrepiece - flashes on announcing the market is open. The rotating blue globe displays indices from other financial centres around the world, and replaces a former installation, hundreds of smaller white balls called The Source, that was removed in 2010.

The Walbrook Building

The Walbrook Building is the City headquarters of companies such as AJ Gallagher, the insurance brokerage, and Jones Lang LaSalle, the global real estate services firm. The triangular building, with its beehive-like exterior, was completed in 2010. The Walbrook takes its name from a river that runs below but that has been covered over since the 19th century.

The Walbrook Building's curved structure moulds the shape of the hollow, flowing reception area. In the building's main atrium, with its floor-to-ceiling glass panels, a view towards the roof looks as if gazing through a kaleidoscope. In addition to the exterior layer of fins protecting the building, the edifice is also covered in environmentally-friendly solar shading that maintains the building's even temperature all year round.

Deutsche Bank London

The sleek foyer at Deutsche Bank's London headquarters at Great Winchester Street grants visitors a privileged look at the company's renowned art collection. The lobby displays prized artwork by Keith Tyson, Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst and Tony Cragg, whose 1998 Secretions sculpture of hugging boulder-like structures is pictured above. Deutsche Bank founded its largely contemporary art collection in the late 1970s, shortly after opening its London office in 1973. Artworks are sprinkled in offices and meeting rooms throughout the main headquarters, with more than 100 of the building's conference rooms named after various artists.

Barclay's London

Barclays Bank moved its centre of operations to One Churchill Place in Docklands in 2005 after having been based on Lombard Street since the company's founding in 1690. In the main foyer of the 32-floor skyscraper at Canary Wharf, a twisted silver structure by Tony Cragg, Constant Change of 2005, is accompanied by various large glass panels displaying the words 'respect', 'service' and 'stewardship' in illuminated blue writing.

Second impressions

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