Niger Company and G B Ollivant

Niger House by James Lomax-Simpson. Designed for the Niger Company after they were bought out in 1920 by Lever Brothers. Lever wanted to consolidate their various offices and retail units in Lagos into a central location overlooking the Marina. The only good site available was owned by Trading Association of Nigeria. To obtain the site Lever purchased the entire company and Lomax-Simpson designed the new building there. It had a retail space on the ground floor with staff lounges and accommodation above. It wasn’t to Lever’s taste and he complained about it having a ‘town hall’ feel.

New windows have been punched through the portico and an additional storey added. In the same district of Lagos is Wilberforce House, built for Manchester cotton traders G B Ollivant. The United Africa Company was formed by the merger of Niger Company and African and Eastern, and they went on to purchase G B Ollivant in 1933.

Wilberforce House was constructed by Taylor Woodrow West Africa (and the UAC had a 50% stake in this business too).

Perhaps the most well-known UAC owned business was Kingsway Stores. They had branches across West Africa. The Lagos branch filled an entire city block and was originally designed as a store and office for the African and Eastern Trading Corporation. The Deco style portico was added later.