View of 427-429 Strand (north side), City of Westminster. To the left, Rhodesia House at number 429. Previously the headquarters of the British Medical Association who commissioned this five-storey building in 1906-08 to replace a two-storey classical building on the same site. Designed by Charles Holden as partner in Adams and Holden in grey Cornish granite and Portland stone. Eighteen nude figures, sculpted by Jacob Epstein, once decorated the building to chart the stages of human life from birth to death. In some quarters the statues caused outrage with the London Evening Standard reporting that it was ‘a form of statuary which no careful father would wish his daughter, or no discriminating young man, his fiancée, to see’. After a piece of masonry (apparently a 9kg head of a statue) fell from the building, injuring the foot of a passer-by, an investigation found acid rain was contributing to the loosening of the stonework. In the interest of public safety, a contentious decision was made to remove any limb or protruding features from the statues. Their mutilated forms remain on the now Zimbabwe House, and the building is Grade II* listed, number 1237039. Number 428 is a three-storey building with Art Deco decoration, occupied by 'Dollond and Aitchison Limited, Sight Testing' with an owl logo. 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. On the pavement is a sign for 'Gents Saloon and Haircutting 1s Shaving First Floor' and a wall sign with the letter ‘G’ points to a 'Public Gas Cleansing Centre'. Between December 1939 and January 1940, a number of these centres were built in response to the fear that gas attacks would take place during World War II bombing. They were centrally controlled by the Ministry of Health and all stations had to be built following a central model plan of four units for each sex with an outside stripping shed, an inside undressing room, a washing or shower room, and a dressing room. Each four compartments had to be sealed off from each other to prevent the spread of gas vapour. To the right, the four-storey building of the Civil Service Supply Association, designed by architects Lockwood & Mawson. A chair and bust on a table sit in the window with a sign for 'Photographic Department and Optical Department'. Founded as a cooperative in 1865 by forty members of the Post Office, in 1927 it was incorporated as a private company becoming a department store and severing its links with the Civil Service. The building was completely rebuilt at this time in the Art Deco style. The store remained open until 1982 when it was closed following a severe fire. Two cars are parked in the street.