> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ✨ Treasure Hoard: Oriel Chambers, Liverpool by Peter Ellis - URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/treasure-hoard-oriel-chambers-liverpool-by-peter-ellis/ - Published: 2026-11-10T11:57:17.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-10T14:17:46.000Z - Description: A truly significant building and little known. I remember, as a young photographer, making a pilgrimage to this building because of its status. - Author: Andy Marshall - Tags: Treasure, oriel chambers, liverpool, #treasure-105 **Oriel Chambers, built in 1864, in Liverpool is a remarkable building, not simply for its architecture, but for the extraordinary leap of imagination it represents. Designed by Peter Ellis and now Grade I listed, it is recognised as the world's earliest surviving building to incorporate a metal-framed glass curtain wall.** At a time when substantial masonry walls dominated Victorian architecture, Ellis was exploring something radically different. His slender iron-framed oriel windows allowed daylight to flood into the offices, while the glazed curtain wall to the rear anticipated an architectural language that would eventually transform city skylines across the world. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/11/IMG_8683.jpeg) Yet the building was savagely criticised. In 1866, *The Builder* described it as a "vast abortion", seemingly unable to comprehend the possibilities that Ellis had revealed. Today, Oriel Chambers is recognised as an important precursor to the Chicago School and the development of the modern skyscraper. Decades before those great American buildings began to rise, here in Liverpool was an architect exploring the relationship between structure, glass and light that would help shape the modern city. **What was condemned as an architectural aberration was, in many ways, a glimpse of the future.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/11/Liverpool-Oriel-Chambers-1.jpg) | [ ![An illustrative room mockup of my Oriel Chambers photograph, shown complete in an oak frame above a wooden console. Printing and framing are not included.](https://genius-loci-atelier.andymarshall.workers.dev/media/oriel-chambers-liverpool-10mm-room-w1536-467f0d55d479f246.jpg) ](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/atelier/oriel-chambers-liverpool/) | Some buildingsstay with you.![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/assets/atelier-design/compact-white.png) Oriel Chambers has stayed with me since my first visit. If those extraordinary windows have caught your imagination too, I’ve made my photograph available as a digital print. Choose your paper, find a frame and give this remarkable Liverpool building a place in your home. [View digital print · £12.99](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/atelier/oriel-chambers-liverpool/) Printing and framing are not included. The purchase is for a digital file. | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- Andy Marshall’s Treasure Hoard Gazetteer ## Small wonders. *Hidden in plain sight.* My personal collection of material treasures: a growing map of wonders gathered over more than forty years of photographing and documenting Britain — ancient yews, ghost angels, carved ships, Roman stonework and details that reward a closer look. 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