Elder Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1905 · Authors: Antonio Pintor y Ocete

The firm Elder Dempster and Co. was founded in Liverpool in 1890, focusing its activity on maritime traffic and trade with the British colonies in West Africa. The policy of strategic ports to refuel with coal and trade in general led the company to open two branches in the main ports of the Canary Islands. In both Santa Cruz and Las Palmas, the company was dedicated to ship agency, production and export of fruits and vegetables, and banking business.

For its headquarters in Santa Cruz, a large plot was acquired in 1903 at the junction of Calle del Castillo and Calle de Robayna, an area that had been urbanised a few years earlier by the Sociedad Constructora. The building was the work of architect Antonio Pintor, who never hid his fondness for this magnificent project. Built expressly for its function (until then companies combined domestic and commercial functions in the same building), this building changed the established scheme. The façade, through its exuberance, sought to attract the attention of passers-by while demonstrating the company's economic potential.

The façade features extensive stonework as well as splendid modernist doors with rich decoration. Pintor offered a different solution for each front. On Robayna Street he concentrated the most opulent decoration, with various marine attributes installed on the crowning. On the chamfer facing Calle del Castillo, he curved the front to create a fictitiously wider appearance. Regarding the façades on San Clemente and San Lucas, the architect moderated the decoration as they could not be appreciated due to the narrowness of the streets.

The common interior areas receive different treatment according to their function. The side entrance halls are adorned with discreet modernist decoration painted on the walls. The greatest decorative richness is concentrated in the large entrance hall, from which a beautiful staircase rises, all framed by two cast iron columns. At the vanishing point of this ensemble is a large modernist stained glass window, whose iconography is an exaltation of the company and the nation from which it comes. In the centre is the figure of Albion (England) bearing the banner of Saint George, above it the coat of arms of Great Britain, and beneath its feet, the figure of a ship with the company's emblems. In a frieze are inscribed the effigies of the firm's founders, and at the top, flanking the United Kingdom's coat of arms, are those of Spain and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Currently, the ground floor of this magnificent building is occupied by various commercial businesses, while the rest of the building is occupied by an insurance company.

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