Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study
DATE April 2012 Contents Contents
Introduction 5 Description of Location 5 Sources 5 History & Development of the Area 7 Features of the Area 16 The Square & its Houses 17 Northampton Square Gardens 22 19 Tompion Street 24 1-4 & 5-13 Sebastian Street 25 11-18 Ashby Street 28 14 Wyclif Street 30 City University Buildings & Railings 32 Berry Place 38 167-181 Goswell Road 39 Other Buildings of Note 42 Evaluation of Proposals 49 4 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 5
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London Borough of Islington Conservation Area 20 Map; study area outlined in orange.
London Borough of Islington Interactive Map, accessed April 2012 4 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 5
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Introduction
Development proposals for Sites 1, 2 & 3 on the Brunswick Close Estate are adjacent, near to, and within the Conservation Area respectively. This Conservation Area Assessment has been written to describe the significance of the heritage assets of the Northampton Square Conservation Area in accordance with Chapter 12 of the National Planning Policy Framework 2012. The research was undertaken by A. Sullivan of HTA Architects during March and April 2012.
Description of Location
Northampton Square is in Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The assessment area considered in this document is bounded by Goswell Road, Percival Street, St. John Street and Spencer Street. The Northampton Square Conservation Area, No.29 designated in 1990, covers the middle of this area. The development proposals apply to three sites on the Southern boundary of the Conservation Area with one, Site 3, within the boundary.
Sources
Modern Architecture. H. Heathcote Statham. London, Champman & Hall, 1897. The History of the Squares of London, Topographical and Historical. E. Beresford Chancellor. London, Keegan Paul, Trench, Traubner & Co Ltd., 1907. The Squares of Islington, Part 1 Finsbury & Clerkenwell. Mary Cosh. Islington Archaeology & History Society, 1990. Survey of London, Vol.XLVI, South & East Clerkenwell. Ed. Philip Temple. English Heritage & Yale University Press, 2008. Survey of London, Vol.XLVII, North Clerkenwell & Pentonville. Ed. Philip Temple. English Heritage & Yale University Press, 2008. London Metropolitan Archives Catalogue Islington Local Studies Centre Catalogue Roque Map 1746 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/ COU_files/ENG/LON/Rocque/rocque_index.htm Accessed 28/3/12. Booth Map. http://booth.lse.ac.uk Accessed 28/3/12. http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/ Accessed 28/3/12. http://wycliffe.org.uk/wycliffe/about/history-ofbt.html Accessed 3/4/12. http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/lollards.html Accessed 5/4/12 6 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 7
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Figure 1: John Roque Map of London, 1746 with study area outlined in orange
Photo 1: Northampton Square, April 2012. 6 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 7
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History & Development of the Area
Northampton Square is mostly fields on the Roque map of 1746 (Figure 1). A route connects St. John Street with Goswell Road aligning with the New River Head to the North West, and Northampton House can be seen set back from the road with an extensive botanic garden. The house had been vacated by the Northampton family by 1708, had become an asylum by 1728 and by 1817 had become a young ladies boarding academy remaining so until demolition in 1874 for the Vicarage buildings, of which No.14 Wycliff Road remains.
The Earls of Northampton owned land in Canonbury and Clerkenwell developing streets and houses on both. At Clerkenwell, to the South of Northampton House, was the Skin Market established by the Skinners Company for the sale of sheep skins, and a development of buildings known as Wood’s Close, the first of any size on the site. A comprehensive plan to develop the land with streets and houses around a square was first made in 1791 by the Agent for the Estate, E. Boodle and S.P. Cockerell Surveyor to the Estate to address the financial difficulties of Charles Compton, 9th Earl Northampton.
Despite the ambitions toward building, in 1792 part of the site is recorded being used for keeping the stray animals of the parish. The delay in commencing development follows the New River Company successfully citing the risk of building works to the water supply which crossed the site to the City. By 1805 the Company’s lease had expired and the square was being laid out to a revised plan informed by the route of the water main generating the unusual street layout and elliptical garden in the square. The houses overlooking the square were to be of higher status, their design prepared in the 1790s by S.P. Cockerell having three storeys with an attic and basement, and those of the surrounding streets designed for tradespeople and labourers. The rush to income led to leases for building plots often being signed before the houses had been completed and for terms of around only 70 years. This put the Estate at risk and reduced the appeal of the Square for the Upper 10,000 which favoured the more common 99year lease.
The Estate Plan of 1809 (Figure 2) shows the progress of development on the Northampton Clerkenwell lands, the space on the plan between was owned by the Skinner’s Company. The greater importance given to Charles Street is clear. At this date Northampton House with its long garden stretching to St John Street and botanic garden stretching South to the Skin market is still standing. Of the houses on the square still standing today No.12, Nos.22 to 25 and Nos.31 to 34 were built. The South side of Charles Street and most of the South side of Ashby Street are complete. No.181 Goswell Road at the corner of Ashby Street is standing. Commercial premises and outbuildings have covered some of the land behind the completed terraces though most of the North side of the square remains undeveloped. The six streets were named for the Northampton Family. Taylor’s Road already existing was renamed Upper and Lower Charles Street in 1814. Smith Street was named for Lady Maria, wife of the 9th Earl Northampton and daughter to a Mr. Smith, Gentleman, of Wiltshire. Ashby Street is named after Castle Ashby the family estate in Northamptonshire. The first houses were built on the South parts of the East and West sides of the square by Samuel Danford with Thomas Woollcott of which Nos.22-25 survive (Photo 2). 8 Brunswick Close Estate
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Initially the occupants of the square were professional and genteel, though finding tenants was difficult with Nos.19-21 remaining empty until 1816. By the 1830s entrepreneurs and businessmen had moved in taking the square away from its earliest aspirations and the square came to be associated with clock and watch makers with workshops in the attics and basements. Land behind the terraces was also used for workshops and by the 1840s these were joined by small houses for workers. This downturn from the genteel deepened as the short leases fell in from the 1870s. Maintenance was poor, houses were split into tenements and efforts to turn the decline around made by the 4th Marquess were ineffectual.
Detail of Figure 2; Northampton Square Residential in pink, Commercial in grey. At the end of Lower Ashby Street St. Peter’s Church was built by 1871 with a Vicarage and school buildings completed by 1877 sometime after the area was surveyed for the Ordnance Survey (Figure 3). At this time the original square was standing in its most complete form in the context of the original 1790s design. The square, Upper Charles Street and Spencer Street are fronted with larger properties with smaller properties on the other streets. Behind these principal routes are tightly packed terraces on Brunswick Street, Portland Place and Market Street on the site of the 18th Century Skin Market and the botanic garden of Northampton House. Elsewhere workshops and other industrial buildings including a flour mill cover the land behind the fine terraces, though in the North East quadrant a garden can be seen. 8 Brunswick Close Estate
HFI-BCE-101 London Metropolitan Archives Figure 2: Northampton Estate Plan, 1809. Figure 3: Ordnance Survey 1/2500, 1877. Crown Copyright & Landmark Information Group 2012 Figure 4: Ordnance Survey 1/2500, 1896. Crown Copyright & Landmark Information Group 2012 12 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 13
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The 1893 Post Office Directory lists numerous watchmakers and jewelers on the square, as well as Milliners, Furriers, an Architect, Engravers and at 21A the Finsbury Income and Land Tax Office.
The Northampton Institute was established in 1891 to provide technical education, physical training and recreation for the young men and women of the area’s poorer classes and address the needs of the local clock and watch making industries. A design competition for a new building on the site of houses between Ashby Street and Charles Street was won by E.W. Mountford with construction beginning in 1894. The North ranges were complete by 1896 and the South range by 1898 when it was opened by the Lord Mayor of London who Figure 5: Booth Poverty Map, 1899 praised it as ‘a palace of technical education.’ The 1896 London School of Economics Library Ordnance Survey (Figure 4) shows the building in progress. To the South East Brunswick Close and Market Street have been pushed through to Smith Street, perhaps to admit fresh air to dispel the ills of so many living in such close proximity. Charles Booth’s London Poverty Map of 1899 (Figure 5) characterises these streets as poor while much of the area has ‘good ordinary earnings’ with ‘some well to do’ overlooking the square. The 1916 Ordnance Survey (Figure 7) shows Goswell Road has been widened, and Nos. 137-149 & 151-157 have replaced the plain three storey houses built by Danford by 1784 and a public convenience is at the end of Charles Street.
Figure 6: Northampton Institute Architect’s View 1894 12 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 13
HFI-BCE-101 HFI-BCE-101 Figure 7: Ordnance Survey 1/2500, 1916. Crown Copyright & Landmark Information Group 2012 14 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 15
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In 1935 many streets in the area were renamed. Lower Charles Street became Walmesley Street after Dr Robert Walmesley the first Principal of the Northampton Institute. Upper Charles Street became Sebastian Street after Lewis Sebastian Polytechnic Benefactor, Master of the Skinners Company and chair of the College Governors until 1901. Upper Smith Street becasme Earlstoke Street after Maria Smith’s parental home in Wiltshire, this road now covered by the University extension. The lower part of Smith Street became Tompion Street. The West portion of Ashby Street, site of St Peter’s Church, was renamed Wyclif Street for John Wyclif, the first to translate the Bible from Latin to English.
Clearance of the poor quality housing of Brunswick Close had been planned by the Northampton Estate from 1923 and by Finsbury Borough Council from 1929. After heavy bomb damage during Second World War the land between Tompion Street and the shops and houses on St John’s Street were finally cleared and the Brunswick Close Estate built between 1949 & 1962.
At Northampton Square the London County Council Conservation Subcommittee concluded in 1963 the square was a poor design further compromised by Victorian rebuilding thereby condemning the North side to demolition between 1966 & 1969 for the expansion of City University. Strong objections led to the rest of the square being listed in 1972 and becoming a Conservation Area in 1990.
Figure 8: Northampton Square Gardens, 1912. Islington Local Studies Centre 14 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 15
HFI-BCE-101 HFI-BCE-101 Figure 9: Ordnance Survey 1/2500, 1960-71. Crown Copyright & Landmark Information Group 2012 16 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 17
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Photo 2: Nos.22 to 25 Northampton Square
Photo 3: Nos.26 to 34 Northampton Square No.36 is the red brick building. 16 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 17
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Features of the Area
The Square and its houses.
Northampton Square was laid out from 1803-1804 to designs revised following an initial plan of 1791 to incorporate Taylor’s Road on an alignment from the New River Head toward the City. The resulting unusual site layout with streets radiating out in all directions led to odd corner plots exemplified by Nos.12 & 26. The Estate Surveyor, Architect S.P. Cockerell, advocated better houses on the square with a balance of lesser houses at the margins. His design for the elevations features continuous blind arcading to Ground and First floors and dates to the 1790s after work by George Dance the Younger on the East side of Finsbury Square in the 1780s and James Carr at Newcastle Square in the South of Clerkenwell in the 1790s. Cockerell specified that later houses should match for uniformity and the design became influential across Clerkenwell and Islington during the 1820s.
House building began in 1805 on the South parts of the East and West sides of the square by Samuel Danford and Thomas Woollcott of which Nos.22-25 survive (Photo 2). The listed buildings on the square include:
Nos. 18, 19, 21, 21A & Attached Railings, List Entry No.1195694
Nos.22 to 25 (consecutive) & Attached Railings, List Entry No.1293268
Nos. 26-34 (consecutive) & Attached Railings. List Entry No.1195695
London Metropolitan Archives holds many original leases for these properties. Among these is the lease for the East side of Smith Street, South East side of Northampton Square and South side of Charles Street (E/NOR/L/3/547). It was leased by Samuel Danford, who had previously developed nearby and also had an interest in a neighbouring plot along Charles Street, on Lady Day 1806 for 73 for a rent of £50-0-0. It includes a conveyance plan of the South East corner of Northampton Square showing 17 plots on the street with open ground behind that would become Nos.22-25 Northampton Square, Nos.9-18 Smith Street and Nos.8-11 Upper Charles Street, the ground behind becoming workshops.
Another lease is for land on the South West side of Northampton Square and the North West side of Smith Street (E/NOR/L/3/548) between the Earl of Northampton and Thomas Woollcott who developed most of the South side. It is dated 1st November 1810 for a term of 71 years from Lady Day 1810 to Lady Day 1881.The rent being £32-9-0. The conveyance plan shows one house on the corner with Smith Street, No.26 Northampton Square, and No.19 Smith Street (Tompion Street) with the rest of the plot undeveloped. The lease was signed for a short term after only two of the plots were built and dated seven months after the term had commenced. A detailed list of builders and lessees of the original development can be found in the Survey of London Vol.46, pp307-08. Several houses underwent restoration and refurbishment by the London Borough of Islington in 1994. 18 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 19
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Photo 4: 22 Northampton Square
Photo 5: 27 Northampton Square 18 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 19
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Photo 6: 28 Northampton Square
Photo 7: 19 Northampton Square 20 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 21
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Photo 8: Nos.18 to 21 Northampton Square
Photo 9: Northampton Square Railings and Paving 20 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 21
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There are a variety of plans but the houses are not particularly large. The basement storey includes a kitchen area in front of each property with some basements converted to accommodation. All the terraces are built of brick in Flemish bond though of varying colour, perhaps by phase or recent cleaning, and there is sporadic repointing. The window reveal of a brick width in a brick panel set back a brick width from the arcaded principal face of the building exploits the constructional demand for thick walls to the Ground and First floors, the second floor walls being thinner. The rubbed brick arch and arched window head on the Ground storey are particularly rich and give dignity to even the blind panels. The flat heads and balconettes of the upper storey enhance the piano nobile. Verticality is achieved through alignment of a consistent width of window. A string course separates Figure 10: Floor Plans; Survey of London Ground storey from upper storeys, a cornice and parapet enclose the elevation and permits the roofline, rising party walls and chimney stacks to recede behind. Doorways are consistently set within the arcading and not enclosed by an arched panel, as on Sebastian Street. Each door is set between engaged columns or pilasters carrying a cornice beneath an arched transom. The detail of columns and pilasters varies and several early transom frames survive (Photos 4 to 7).
There is an offset in the line of the string course between No.22 and No.13 Sebastian Street where it faces the square. From No.22 to 25, built first, are a wide fronted house with three narrow fronted houses (Photo 2). No.22, the wide house, has taken the two windows per floor arrangement of the upper storeys featured on the more typical narrow fronted houses and drawn them apart by the width of the doorcase. The three narrow fronted houses that follow run in series rather than being handed to pair entrances. The corner house, No.18 Smith Street on the 1809 Estate Plan, has been lost though it was likely similar to 19 Tompion Street opposite.
From 26 to 34 is a long terrace (Photo 3) beginning with No.26, a wide house, and the remainder the narrower width more typical on the square. The elevation of No.26 differs from that of No.22, the other wide house, through provision of four windows on each of the upper floors arranged to appear as a pair of narrow fronted houses. It is a more discreet arrangement, the greater size of the house not readily apparent to the casual eye. The former use of the attics as workshops is still legible in the attic windows. The remaining narrow fronted houses of the terrace are once again arranged in series. At No.27 is some lead flashing and a cleaner patch of brick suggesting signage was present when commercial premises. Other houses show this removed and repointed. Lamp brackets remain to several houses. No.36 and No.19 Tompion Street on the corners of this terrace are the awkward corners resulting from the radial arrangement of streets.
From 18 to 21 are three similar terrace houses with end houses turning the corners (Photo 8). No.18 was built as the Ashby Castle and remained a pub until 1882 then becoming offices and now flats named Quill House. Nos.19-21 Northampton Square are narrow fronted houses with the only example of paired entrances on the square. No.12 Sebastian 22 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 23
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Street, formerly 21a Northampton Square, is the corner house. They were built together between 1809 and 1813 and feature the same design as the houses of the rest of the square (Photos 16 & 17).
The listed elements of the square are united by their common railing design and Yorkstone paving to the footway. It is a lovely place and standing in the North West corner of the square looking across the gardens the terraces make a handsome group.
Northampton Square Gardens
Initially laid out by 1804 the garden in the square was leased in 1881 for a pepper corn rent to the tenants of Nos. 9, 10 & 15 Northampton Square who were empowered to raise subscriptions from their neighbours to pay for its upkeep. In 1885 the garden was leased to the Metropolitan Public Garden, Boulevard and Playground Association assuming responsibility for the upkeep of garden and railings. The lease stipulates it was “to be retained as an ornamental garden for the use of residents of all classes in the neighbourhood and not a playground nor for public addresses or in any way a nuisance to the inhabitants facing the square.” A new layout was prepared by Miss F. Wilkinson of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association including a fountain (Photo 11) erected by Charles Walker Esq. J.P. of Shropshire in memory of his mother, a local resident. The Marquess’s daughter , Lady Margaret Graham, formally opened the Gardens in 1885.
The garden was then conveyed as a gift to the Vestry of St. James and St. John Clerkenwell in 1887 under the same stipulations as the 1885 lease. It is thought its Plane trees are some of those originally planted at the beginning of the 19th Century. The central fountain seen in the photograph of 1912 (Figure 6) was replaced by the bandstand in 1930 though there are records of summer band performances held in the square in 1900, and again in 1975. A store was built on the West side of the garden by the London Borough of Finsbury in 1937 and converted to a kiosk in 2006.
The space remains popular with the current residents of the square, particularly the students of City University. The late Victorian layout remains though the railings of the paths have been lost. It is well maintained with a mixture of planting and grassed areas beneath the trees featuring cast iron urns (Photo 10) seen in Figure 6. The original design of the bandstand (Photo 11) had all but one side glazed rather than only one side. 22 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 23
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Photo 10: Northampton Square Gardens
Photo 11: Water Fountain & Bandstand Northampton Square Gardens 24 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 25
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Photo 12: 19 Tompion Street 24 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 25
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19 Tompion Street
A three storey building of residential use over commercial (Photo 12). The listing (List Entry No. 1292541) gives the date of construction between 1815 and 1818 whereas the Survey of London gives it as 1809-1810. Built at the same time though separate from the house at No.26 Northampton Square this building is the last survivor of Smith Street. Originally part of a terrace, when seen from the rear the Southern half of the double lean-to roof has been truncated while at the front width has been added. The ground floor shop front is altered with surviving frieze, cornice and console brackets. Split into four bays this may originally have been just three with a broad central window, the door serving the premises and accommodation. The current windows and door are relatively recent. The upper floors have 2 windows each with the first floor taller than the second as with its more genteel neighbours, culminating in a parapet.
1-4 & 5-13 Sebastian Street
Formerly Lower Charles Street, named for Charles Compton, 9th Earl Northampton, the houses of Sebastian Street are of similar elevation design to those on the Square and the street is the widest suggesting it was considered a more important route than the other radiating streets (Figure 2 & Photo 14). It has been much altered with Nos.17-19 bombed and replaced in 1947 with the current building, a good example of English Modernism. Nos.14 &15 were demolished in 1969. Outbuildings to the rear of Nos.13 & 14 were first raised and then altered to become offices, then knocked through to No.21.
No.14 remains as a unique single storey house in the area with a grand entrance of paired pilasters carrying frieze and cornice over a tall entrance door with semi- circular transom. No.12 (Photos 16 & 17) was formerly 21a Northampton Square and built from 1808 to 1810. Photo 13: Sebastian Street, Its entrance is framed by engaged Ionic columns, also continuity of railings and paving seen at No.28 Northampton Square, and a well preserved ornate transom all set within the brick arcading characteristic of the better houses. The elevation is treated as a pair of the more typical narrow fronted houses with one lit and the other with blinded panels.
Doorways such as that at No.5 (Photo 15) are consistently set within an arched panel within the principal arcading distinct from those on the square (Photos 4 to 7) which extend to the arcading without a panel. There are five narrow fronted houses in the surviving terrace culminating in two wide houses toward the square. 26 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 27
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Photo 14: Nos.5 to 11 Sebastian Street
Photo 15: 5 Sebastian Street 26 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 27
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Photo 16: 12 Sebastian Street
Photo 17: 12 Sebastian Street 28 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 29
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Photo 18: Ashby Street, with No.181 Goswell Road
Photo 19: Nos.11 to 18 Ashby Street 28 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 29
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11-18 Ashby Street
Ashby Street is one of the Estate’s lesser roads. The houses are smaller in overall scale with simpler elevations. Windows are arranged in accordance with Georgian principles of tall and narrow providing verticality by a consistent width aligning through the three storeys. A string course is present and some ground floors have been rendered. The surviving doorways are simpler in their detail (Photo 20) than those of the square and Sebastian Street though still have the arched transoms cha\racteristic of this development. Railings and paving are also consistent with the rest of the square. The street once had a number of shops with that at No.18 (Photo 19, left) a Fruiterer’s shop then various greengrocers and from 1880 to 1960 a dairy. Of the various shopfronts that to No.12 was removed in 1994 and that to No.18 has been altered.
Though belonging to the earlier phases of development on the site this terrace is not a particularly refined design with the more engaging features of the better houses absent. They are of the middling sort, and of a better quality that those once crowding the site of the 18th Century Skin Market.
Photo 20: 16 Ashby Street 30 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 31
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Photo 21: 28 Northampton Square
Photo 22: 19 Northampton Square 30 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 31
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14 Wyclif Street
The Vicarage at No.14 Wyclif Street is the surviving part of a complex of buildings which included a school for which Northampton House was pulled down in 1874. Designed by J. Christian and built from 1874-75 by T. Elkington of Golden Lane it is a tall three storeys plus basement. Its principle elevation (Photo 22) addressed the East end of the church (Figures 3, 4 & 7). It was converted to flats between 1991 and 1993 and a glazed link added connecting it to Nos.35-36 Northampton Square. The church it served on the corner of St. John Street and Wyclif Street was St. Peter’s, the Smithfield Martyrs Memorial Church. It was designed by E.L. Blackburne between 1869-71 as a memorial to 15th & 16th Century Protestant Martyrs and to serve the poor of the Northampton Estate East of St. John Street.
It is a very imposing Vicarage of a scale to meet the very large St Peter’s Church it once served. Of a yellow stock brick with stone dressings there is an ecclesiastical reference in its use of a simplified Gothic language to the upmost storey and gables. The remainder is largely conventional with three sided bay windows to the Ground floor but featuring geometric ornament. The Church it served was richly ornamented in contrast, described as “singularly assertive Victorian Gothic,” and considered ugly by Pevsner. It was demolished 1955-56 after significant bomb damage during the Second World War and replaced by Wyclif Court and the shops of the Brunswick Close Estate. The adjoining School built as part of the complex from 1875-77 was also destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War.
Photo 23: Vicarage Boundary Wall 32 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 33
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Photo 24: Northampton Institute, the Clock Tower 32 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 33
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City University Building and Railings, St. John’s Street
After earlier Polytechnics the Northampton Institute was established by Lord Compton in 1891 before he become the 5th Marquess Northampton to provide technical education, physical training and recreation for the poorer young men and women of the area. The skilled workers it would produce were intended to address the needs of the long established local clock and watch making industries as well as those industries then new to the area. The competition to design the building was won by E.W. Mountford the Architect of Battersea Polytechnic with construction beginning in 1894. The contractor was Walter Wallis of Balham, steelwork by Richard Moreland and Lindsay, Neale & Co. The North ranges were complete by 1896 and the South range by 1898. Its style is a blend of English Renaissance and Arts & Crafts styles characteristic of its Architect. It occupies a triangular site presenting a different composition to each street with a central clock tower, located close to the site of the former turnpike gate, that responded to the tower of St Peter’s Church marking the principal entrance on St. John’s Street (Photos 24 & 30). The sculpture over the entrance is by P.R. Montford and symbolises Science, Agriculture and Technology. Workshops included a smithy, optical lab, electrical engineering, cookery and dressmaking. The original design included a swimming pool and a Great Hall with organ to seat 1500 for concerts and dances. It is built of Suffolk red brick with Bath stone dressings, steel truss roofs under green Westmoreland slates with electric light, lifts and machinery. The clock, an essential element of the design, is by E. Dent & Co. Ltd. The original oak case and bracket of the clock were dismantled in 1939 and eventually replaced in 1951. The Institute became the Northampton Polytechnic Institute in 1907 and was extended from 1908-09 with a five storey laboratory block. The Gymnasium and Great Hall were rebuilt with changes to elevations on St John Street and to the North from 1952-56 after flying bomb damage in 1944. A fire in the upper parts of the South wing of the front range did extensive damage in 2001 but was restored and refurbished from 2004-06. Photo 25: Northampton Institute The later buildings of City University are in a variety of Railings Brutalist styles and were erected from 1966-70, 1971-74 & 1992-94. These buildings not only demolished a large number of the original buildings of the square but also built over Taylor’s Row, later Charles Street, later Walmseley Street, the alignment of which contributed to the layout of the Northampton Square development in 1791.
The early history of the Northampton Institute would bear detailed research exploring the social context of its establishment and how these were expressed through the original design for the building. The view drawn by Mr Mountford’s office (Figure 6) shows the original design for the clock case and a statue can be seen in the niche overlooking the junction of St. John Street and Spencer Street. The upper parts of the South range in the Architect’s view are different from the existing arrangement. The building dominates St . 34 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 35
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John’s Street and almost looms over Wyclif Street but at the Square the Women’s Entrance makes the corner and the two bays beside it each comprising a pair of tall windows beneath a string course, large arched head windows to the First Floor and two smaller windows at the top beneath a cornice and parapet, behind which rises an attic storey, address the square. This arrangement is sympathetic to its context though on a larger scale suited to the Institutional Use and using the building’s late Victorian extrapolation of an English Renaissance language. This language is most readily apparent in the cyma recta profile of the gable end (Photo 28) prominent on St. John’s Street, and the Clock Tower, but for its bulk, rising from a deeply shaded arched entrance with frieze of sculpted relief and broken pediment with a fenestrated panel articulated with stone dressings then a stone balustrade above, behind which a dome rises from a drum the top Photo 26: Northampton Institute of the tower carrying the clock. The windows in the Paving range extending to the South are arranged in a well established mode in English Architecture from the 17th Century onward while to the North the battered buttresses suggest a more vernacular language developed through the Arts & Crafts movement.
Photo 27: Northampton Institute at the corner of St. John’s Street & Spencer Street 34 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 35
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Photo 28: Northampton Institute at the corner of St. John’s Street & Wyclif Street
Photo 29: Northampton Institute at Northampton Square
Photo 30: Northampton Institute St. John’s Street Entrance 38 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 39
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Photo 31: Berry Place
Photo 32: Berry Place 38 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 39
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Berry Place
Originally Mulberry Place the surviving two storey buildings are purpose built workshops built between 1914 & 1915. Similar are those at Goswell place which were redeveloped for the Northampton Estate from 1909-11 with workshop and factory buildings. These are the last remaining of numerous industrial buildings that once crowded the lands behind the terraces of Northampton Square.
These are simple buildings of yellow stock brick with windows at regular intervals likely original. Roofs are concealed behind parapets and gables. Particular features include the curved corner surmounted by corbelled brickwork and chimney rising from the next corner. Recent ventilation stacks speak to the ongoing use as workshops maintaining a continuity of use on the site since it was first developed.
Photo 33: Berry Place
167-181 Goswell Road
Nos.175-181 Goswell Road & No.19 Ashby Street were built under Danford at the beginning of development in this area (Photo 34). It is the only part of the original Estate surviving on Goswell Road and was built from 1807-10 as three storeys with shops. No.181 Goswell Road shares the same arcading as the better houses of the square and those on Sebastian Street but has experienced a number of changes (Photo 18). Its proportions suggest it may have had a similar elevation design to No.12 Sebastian Street (Photo 16). 40 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 41
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Photo 34: Nos.167 to 181 Goswell Road; also Photo 18 for 181 Goswell Road
Photo 35: Nos.167 to 173 Goswell Road 40 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 41
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Photo 36: Nos.2 to 4 Sebastian Street
Photo 37: Goswell Place 42 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 43
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The render is later and may conceal an infilled arcaded window facing Goswell Road. Its neighbours on Goswell Road are not particularly good quality but provide a suggestion of how this much changed road would once have looked. Goswell Place is found behind these, redeveloped from 1909 to 1911continuing the use of the land as workshops (Photo 37). Nos.167-173 Goswell Rd were rebuilt in 1923 as a factory (Photo 35) and accentuate a verticality exhibited in the elevation design of Nos.151-157 Goswell Road.
Other buildings of note in the Conservation Area but not listed include Nos.35 & 36 Northampton Square and Nos.137-157 Goswell Road. Nos.35&36 Northampton Square
At the corner of Lower Ashby Street, now Wyclif Street, was the Headquarters of the British Horological Institute where signals from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich Photo 38: 36 Northampton Square; also Photo 3
Photo 39: Nos.137 to 149 Goswell Road 42 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 43
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were received twice daily. The current building replaced an earlier building on the site in 1879 and was raised in height 1883-84. In 1979 it was refurbished as offices with the adjacent Vicarage at 14 Wyclif Street connecting the buildings with a glazed link.
The 1879 design on this wider plot respects the scale and massing of the adjacent earlier terrace in the elevation (Photo 3) and in the detail an ornamental doorway (Photo 38) is provided beside a window. Raising the more consistent string course to the top of the First floor disrupts the line established on the earlier terrace and the later added storey extends the departure from the Georgian design. The resulting taller building makes a different corner to the others of the square and mediates between the earlier terrace and the later Northampton Institute. The red brick used is out of keeping with the rest of the square and in contrast to the brick of its nearest neighbour at 14 Wyclif Street. However it is seen with a more favourable eye in its contribution to the square today than was the case fifty years ago. Nos.137-157 Goswell Road.
The original buildings on the site were by Danford between 1783 and 1784 as plain 3- storey houses. Goswell Road was widened during 1904 & 1905 and Nos.137-149 were replaced by a five storey reinforced concrete structure with brick and artificial stone facing between 1910 and 1912. Nos.151-157 were designed by different Architects and built from 1911 to 1913. A sixth floor was added across both new buildings from 1914 to 1915. The upper floors were converted to student housing and a new extension built at No.1 Sebastian Street from 2004 to 2007 by Y.J. Lovell.
Photo 40: Nos.151 to 157 Goswell Road, and 1 Sebastian Street 44 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 45
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Photo 41: Harold Laski House, Percival Street
Photo 42: Harold Laski House, Entrance 44 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 45
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Brunswick Close Estate
While out of keeping with the character of the Conservation Area their overwhelming size and location for the proposed development site require the Brunswick Close Estate be addressed. The site of the 18th Century Skin Market was gradually developed with small houses on a group of streets renamed Brunswick Close in 1873. Following earlier plans to clear the site of these earlier houses extensive bomb damage during the Second World War led to site clearance with new housing built between 1949 & 1962. The Estate comprises Harold Laski House, Brunswick Close, one of London’s earliest high rise housing schemes, and Mulberry Court. Harold Laski House
Built from 1949 to 1952 it is named for the Marxist Social-Political theorist who was Chariman of the Labour Party 1945-46 and died in 1950. It was designed by G. Hebson, Borough Engineer, to match Tompion House on Cyrus Street nearby. Of red brick in Flemish bond it is a four storey linear block organised around three cores to which entrances step forward (Photo 41). Each entrance is dressed with stone with patterned brickwork rising above (Photo 42). The architectural language could easily be taken for that of 15years earlier than the date of construction. Brunswick Close
Joseph Emberton, Architect was appointed to design the new estate in 1952 but died in 1956. The project was taken over by his Assistant C.L.P. Franck under the firm of Emberton, Franck & Tardrew its 207 flats built by Y.J. Lovell & Son Ltd between 1956 & 58 meeting the density requirement of 200 persons/acre. Wyclif Court is named for John Wyclif while Emberton Court is named after the deceased Architect. Single storey link ranges were designed for the elderly and are provided with front gardens. The inclusion of shops on the estate was agreed in 1954. Parking was assigned to the North West of the site near the present boundary of the Conservation Area. The estate was refurbished in 1979 by Hutchinson & Partners and from 1999-2000 the blocks were re-clad. Three 14 storey blocks their only context is the various other tower blocks found in Clerkenwell. Views through the gaps between the blocks looking from Percival Street show the backs of Nos. 26-34 Northampton Square (Photos 45, 47 & 48). An entrance to the estate from Wyclif Street is largely marked by the Vicarage at No.14. Mulberry Court
Named for Mulberry Place now Berry Place it was added to the estate between 1959 & 1962. The Architects were Emberton, Franck & Tardrew and the builders were Lovell as with the rest of the Estate. Designed to a lower height to transition between slab blocks and Harold Laski House its roof was designed as sun terrace. The prominent feature is the horizontal articulation of the balconies connecting the flats to the core. Panels of yellow stock brick have also been used (Photos 50 & 52). This block makes a bold architectural statement at a scale more sympathetic to the historic context though its six storeys are overwhelmed by the three slab blocks. 46 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 47
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Photo 43: Brunswick Close Estate from St. John’s Street
Photo 44: Brunswick Close Estate single storey link range, Site 2. 46 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 47
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Photo 45: Brunswick Close Estate from Percival Street
Photo 46: Brunswick Close Estate at Tompion Street. Site One. 48 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 49
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Evaluation of Proposals
The existing garages do not contribute to the setting of the Conservation Area. The architectural language of the proposals will mediate between that of the extreme ends of the development history of the site. In accordance with the historic character the site could support a high density of development. The general organising principles of the elevations in brick of late Georgian or early Victorian houses provide approporiate precedent for the aspiration that the new houses fit in with the architectural language of neighbouring Northampton Square. Precedents for an architectural language derived from the two storey workshops at the East side of the site from the 1830s or the small terraces once on the West side of the site from the 1840s described in figures 2, 3, 4 & 7 can be supported with a residential language more appropriate to the houses proposed.
The surviving properties of the square are high status houses, those of Ashby Street of the middling sort. Both are of a higher status and larger scale than the 51 terraced houses houses that once covered this site making the application of details from the surviving Gerogian houses nearby less appropriate than the use of simpler detailing.
Photo 47: View Through the Brunswick Close Estate Figure 11: Falkland Place, top; Leverton Street; from Percival Street to Site One, Mulberry Court right Prowse Place, bottom. 48 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 49
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Examples of small, narrow fronted terraced houses dating to the 1840s can be found on Prowse Place, Falkland Place and Leverton Street in Camden (Figure 11). They are built of brick with a double lean-to roof extending behind a parapet topped with a cornice.
Site One
The site meets the boundary of the Conservation Area. The two storey massing of the proposed terrace is in keeping with the scale of the former residential use of this site (Figures 3, 4 & 7). At Tompion Street, one of the lesser streets of the original development, the immediate context of the surviving No.19 (Photo 12) provides precedent for a three storeybuilding to partly reinstate the terrace that once fronted this street. Photo 45 illustrates this context. With a surviving precedent this larger house can respond directly to the general arrangment of the elevation and the window treatement. Views through the Estate from Percival Street illustrated by Photo 47 can be enhanced by the proposals providing enclosure and establishing a hierarchy of scale from the open space between the blocks to the proposed houses addressing the space and the taller terraces beyond.
Site 2.
The site location is in closer context to the recently re-clad slab blocks of Brunswick Close than the Georgian houses of Northampton Square At at 14 storeys immediate context dominates. Photo 43 shows one of the two link ranges.
Site 3.
The existing two storey high boundary wall to the North shows traces of the buildings that once covered the site. Mulberry Court provides residential context. The historic workshop use of this land (Figures 2, 3, 4 & 7) and adjacent surviving workshop buildings at Berry Place provide a precedent for scale and massing that is met by the two storey proposals. The footprint of these houses maximises the developed area consistent with a commercial typology. An architectural language that mediates between the proposed residential use and its commercial context is appropriate. The existing building at 18 Tompion Street occupies the corner but does not make a strong contribution to the mews. Photo 48: View Through the Brunswick Close Estate Refer to Photos 49 & 51. from Percival Street to Wyclif Street 50 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 51
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Photo 49: Brunswick Close Estate Site One to rear of Nos.26 to 34 Northampton Square
Photo 50: Brunswick Close Estate Site 3 18 Tompion Street left, Mulberry Court right 50 Brunswick Close Estate Heritage Study 51
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Photo 51: Brunswick Close Estate Site One to rear of Nos.26 to 34 Northampton Square
Photo 52: Brunswick Close Estate Site 3 Mulberry Court left, Berry Place right