The British Medical Association building, 429 Strand (north side), City of Westminster, on the corner with Agar Street. A two-storey classical building with attics and basement. A central entrance flanked by fluted Doric-style columns rising to the second floor supporting a lintel decorated with wreaths and anchors. There are elegant figures to the arched heads of the first-floor windows to the street front, and cast-iron balconies. Between the second-floor windows is a lion with a paw on a shield featuring the union flag, with a triangular pediment above. Originally designed by Professor Cockerell, R.A., as the Westminster Insurance Offices, it became the headquarters of The British Medical Association. With origins in The Provincial Medical and Surgical Association founded by Sir Charles Hastings in 1832, and The British Medical Association founded by George Webster in 1836, in 1853 it extended its membership to London doctors and in 1856 transformed itself into the British Medical Association. This building was demolished in 1908 when The British Medical Association commissioned a new building on the same site by Charles Holden, with figures by sculptor Jacob Epstein, now occupied by the Embassy of Zimbabwe. Number 428 is a three-storey building with an ornate sign above the shop front for 'Aitchison and Company Opticians, Opticians to the British and Foreign Governments'. James Aitchison established his first business in Fleet Street in 1889, merging with Dollond & Company in 1927 to form Dollond & Aitchison. This was absorbed into Boots Opticians in 2009. Above the first-floor window is a sign for 'Stanley Elliott Advertising Agency'. The building remains.