DOCSLIB.ORG

Conservation Plan Old Sessions House 22 Clerkenwell Green London Ec1r Ona

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Conservation Plan Old Sessions House 22 Clerkenwell Green London Ec1r Ona CONSERVATION PLAN OLD SESSIONS HOUSE 22 CLERKENWELL GREEN LONDON EC1R ONA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. The Old Sessions House is one of the finest and most important historic buildings in Clerkenwell. Constructed in the late eighteenth century as the Middlesex Sessions House for the magistrates’ courts, it is a high-status building intended to dominate Clerkenwell Green and its surroundings. In 1860 onwards it was re-modelled and extended to present grander elevations to the newly laid out Farringdon and Clerkenwell Roads. Following the relocation of the magistrates courts in 1920 the premises became the headquarters of Avery Scales, and in the 1970s the building was acquired as a Masonic Lodge who occupied the premises until 2013. The new owners, Ted and Oliver Grebelius are therefore only the fourth proprietors in a 235 year history. 2. This Conservation Plan evaluates the historic and architectural significance of the building and its surviving fabric. It sets out the risks and opportunities in the context of the building’s condition, status and current conservation policy. It makes proposals for the repair and enhancement of the building, including a strategy of phased work. It suggests how improvements can be made to the setting of the building within the surrounding environment of Clerkenwell Green and Farringdon Lane. INTRODUCTION 3. This Conservation Plan for the Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green, has been commissioned by Oliver and Ted Grebelius, who acquired the building in late 2013. The Plan aims to inform and direct an appropriate way forward to re-use this important historic building and its immediate environs. 4. In terms of its scope, it seeks to explain the development and alterations over time of the building’s fabric. It evaluates the significance of the building as a designated heritage asset. It sets out to explore opportunities and priorities for repair and restoration, bearing in mind the aspirations of the new owners but in consultation with the Planning Officer and Conservation Officer of the local planning authority, the London Borough of Islington. 5. This document has been prepared by Alec Forshaw, IHBC, MRTPI, appointed as successor to Philip Davies by Oliver and Ted Grebelius as their historic building consultant on this particular project in March 2014. From 1975 until 2007 Alec Forshaw worked for the London Borough of Islington where he was Principal Conservation and Design Officer from 1988 until 2007. 6. Although this document follows the format recommended by the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage, it has not been prepared with any grant application in mind, and therefore contains no financial or feasibility content. UNDERSTANDING THE HERITAGE ASSET A successor to Hicks’ Hall 7. From Tudor times, if not earlier, the Middlesex Magistrates held court in the Castle and Windmill taverns at the bottom end of St John Street, near the Smithfield Bars, just outside the jurisdiction of the City of London. In 1612 a purpose-built Sessions House was erected in the middle of the widest section of road at the expense of Justice Sir Baptist Hicks, and named Hicks’ Hall in his honour. From its small ground-floor court room, local justice was administered. Its greatest claim to fame was the trial in 1660 of twenty-nine of the ‘regicides’, those who had condemned Charles I to death in 1649. Most of these were found guilty, hung, drawn and quartered. 8. By 1770 St John Street had become too busy and noisy for court business, and the premises were cramped, run-down and incapable of expansion. T.H.Shepherd’s beguiling ‘retrospective’ view of Hick’s Hall (Illustration 1), drawn decades after its demolition, is probably more charming than it actually was. The Magistrates agreed that the existing premises were wholly inadequate and that new premises were urgently required. Initially the Magistrates contemplated expanding and rebuilding on their existing site, but the proximity to Smithfield livestock market made this impractical. The site 9. Thomas Rogers, the Middlesex County Surveyor and Architect from 1773 to 1802, was commissioned to draw up alternatives for relocation. Various sites were considered, including Ely Place off Holborn, but in December 1777 a group of buildings forming an island at the west end of Clerkenwell Green were purchased, freehold, for £2,000, a total of £11,000 having been allocated as an overall budget. 10. Clerkenwell Green and its surrounding streets were already built up after the Great Fire, as shown by Ogilvy and Morgan’s detailed map of 1676 (Illustration 2). This clearly shows the island group subsequently acquired. They included various old houses, sheds and the Nag’s Head Tavern. Most suitably it presented a seventy foot frontage to the Green. 11. It seems likely that a good reason for choosing the Clerkenwell Green site was its proximity to the existing penal establishments in Clerkenwell. A prison known as the Clerkenwell Bridewell had been built in 1615 just north of St James’s churchyard as an overflow to the London Bridewell south of Fleet Street. By 1685 a second new prison had been built next to the Clerkenwell Bridewell to relieve chronic overcrowding in Newgate Gaol. Its purpose was to hold those charged or awaiting trial, hence its name, the House of Detention. Soon after, Clerkenwell Bridewell moved to a new larger site further north at Coldbath Fields, and was renamed the Clerkenwell House of Correction. It was notorious for its gigantic human treadmill. The site is known today, somewhat ironically, as Mount Pleasant. 12. In 1774 the House of Detention was greatly enlarged, included new underground cells, to the designs of Thomas Rogers. From here it was just a few hundred metres to Clerkenwell Green. Pink’s Map of Clerkenwell (Illustrations 3 and 4) and Richard Horwood’s detailed map (Illustration 5) show all three institutions in close and convenient proximity. Original 1779 design 13. Rogers’ initial architectural proposals for the new court house were rejected by the magistrates, who wanted an architectural competition. However, having vetted the eleven entries, they chose Rogers, but then proceeded to meddle with the details and specification. One of the rejected entrants to the competition, the disgruntled architect John Carter, claimed that Rogers had actually stolen his ideas. 14. Externally Thomas Rogers concentrated his architectural endeavour on the east frontage, facing the Green. The magistrates had opted for the most expensive materials for the façade – solid Portland stone with Doric columns. The remainder was to be brick with stone dressing for the windows. The Palladian style was unquestionably the fashion of the time – a completely symmetric composition of central portico and pediment above five bays of windows, and a rusticated ground floor. At the request of the Duke of Northumberland embellishments were added, notably five panels of symbolic sculpture in the style of Adam featuring reliefs of ‘Mercy’ and ‘Justice’ flanking a profile of George III. The eminent Joseph Nollekens was hired for £100 to make the sculptures, using Portland stone, and the Middlesex County armorial scimitars carved in the pediment. It appears that Nollekens entrusted the job to John Baptiste Locatelli and his apprentice, John Rossi. At much the same time the Duke insisted that the front elevation columns were changed from Doric to Ionic. 15. Construction commenced in the summer of 1779 but work was delayed by severe winter weather and the Gordon Riots of 1780. The building was not completed for occupation until July 1782. The completed main facade was depicted in 1799 as an ‘exemplar’ (Illustration 6) in George Richardson’s New Vitruvius Britannicus, published in 1802. Illustrations 7 and 8 show the Sessions House in its context in Clerkenwell Green at the end of the eighteenth century. Thomas Hornor’s view of 1813 shows the Session House in an even wider panorama (Illustration 9). Pinks’ engraving (Illustration 10) appears to be later, probably about 1840 judging from the dress of those in the street. Writing in 1828, Thomas Cromwell described the façade as “an elegant design. The sides and rear, being of brick, make but a plain appearance, though the former have each a projecting centre and pediment”. 16. Internally the plan form had three principal spaces. From the main elevated entrance on Clerkenwell Green the vestibule opened into a grand central hall (see plan in Illustration 11), rising the full height of the building and surmounted by a coffered dome in the style of the Pantheon. This magnificent space, 34 feet square, was intended for general public access – prosecutors, witnesses, prisoners’ friends and family, the press - and was surrounded on three sides by open corridors providing circulation to other parts of the building. A double-flight staircase at the west end lead to the first floor court room (see Illustration 12). Originally the wall between the court room and the hall was also open, divided only by two giant columns, such permeability being a requirement at the time of retaining the ancient tradition of ‘open court’. This did not last long. The magistrates complain of noise and unruly behaviour from the hall and by 1783 Rogers had installed a transparent barrier in the form of a glass and cast-iron screen, with sashes for ventilation (see Illustration 13). A peculiar feature of the courtroom, which endured, was the long semi-circular magistrates’ bench running around and above the floor of the court, with a spectators’ gallery above. The impression on the visitor was of entering a sunken well (see Illustration 14). 17. Once sentenced, convicted prisoners were taken down to cells in the basement (hence the origin of the expression ‘being sent down’) before being taken to the appropriate penal institution. There have long been rumours of tunnels connecting the Sessions House to the basement cells of the Clerkenwell House of Detention, but no evidence has ever been found, at either end, and it seems likely, however compelling, to be an urban myth.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • THE NEWGATE CALENDAR Edited by Donal Ó Danachair Volume 6
    THE NEWGATE CALENDAR Edited by Donal Ó Danachair Volume 6 Published by the Ex-classics Project, 2009 http://www.exclassics.com Public Domain -1- THE NEWGATE CALENDAR The Gibbets -2- VOLUME 6 CONTENTS DAVID OWEN Tried and executed for a diabolical attempt to murder his sister, her husband, and their servant maid, 4th April, 1818 .........................................................6 MARY STONE............................................................................................................11 GEORGE CHENNEL AND J. CHALCRAFT............................................................14 CHARLES HUSSEY...................................................................................................30 ROBERT JOHNSTON ................................................................................................31 SAMUEL SIBLEY; MARIA CATHERINE SIBLEY; SAMUEL JONES; his son; THOMAS JONES; JOHN ANGEL; THOMAS SMITH; JAMES DODD and EDWARD SLATER....................................................................................................33 ROBERT DEAN..........................................................................................................36 HENRY STENT ..........................................................................................................40 PEI................................................................................................................................54 JOHN SCANLAN and STEPHEN SULLIVAN .........................................................59 MRS MARY RIDDING ..............................................................................................62
    [Show full text]
  • London and Middlesex in the 1660S Introduction: the Early Modern
    London and Middlesex in the 1660s Introduction: The early modern metropolis first comes into sharp visual focus in the middle of the seventeenth century, for a number of reasons. Most obviously this is the period when Wenceslas Hollar was depicting the capital and its inhabitants, with views of Covent Garden, the Royal Exchange, London women, his great panoramic view from Milbank to Greenwich, and his vignettes of palaces and country-houses in the environs. His oblique birds-eye map- view of Drury Lane and Covent Garden around 1660 offers an extraordinary level of detail of the streetscape and architectural texture of the area, from great mansions to modest cottages, while the map of the burnt city he issued shortly after the Fire of 1666 preserves a record of the medieval street-plan, dotted with churches and public buildings, as well as giving a glimpse of the unburned areas.1 Although the Fire destroyed most of the historic core of London, the need to rebuild the burnt city generated numerous surveys, plans, and written accounts of individual properties, and stimulated the production of a new and large-scale map of the city in 1676.2 Late-seventeenth-century maps of London included more of the spreading suburbs, east and west, while outer Middlesex was covered in rather less detail by county maps such as that of 1667, published by Richard Blome [Fig. 5]. In addition to the visual representations of mid-seventeenth-century London, a wider range of documentary sources for the city and its people becomes available to the historian.
    [Show full text]
  • English Radicalism and the Struggle for Reform
    English Radicalism and the Struggle for Reform The Library of Sir Geoffrey Bindman, QC. Part I. BERNARD QUARITCH LTD MMXX BERNARD QUARITCH LTD 36 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4JH tel.: +44 (0)20 7297 4888 fax: +44 (0)20 7297 4866 email: [email protected] / [email protected] web: www.quaritch.com Bankers: Barclays Bank PLC 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP Sort code: 20-65-90 Account number: 10511722 Swift code: BUKBGB22 Sterling account: IBAN: GB71 BUKB 2065 9010 5117 22 Euro account: IBAN: GB03 BUKB 2065 9045 4470 11 U.S. Dollar account: IBAN: GB19 BUKB 2065 9063 9924 44 VAT number: GB 322 4543 31 Front cover: from item 106 (Gillray) Rear cover: from item 281 (Peterloo Massacre) Opposite: from item 276 (‘Martial’) List 2020/1 Introduction My father qualified in medicine at Durham University in 1926 and practised in Gateshead on Tyne for the next 43 years – excluding 6 years absence on war service from 1939 to 1945. From his student days he had been an avid book collector. He formed relationships with antiquarian booksellers throughout the north of England. His interests were eclectic but focused on English literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Several of my father’s books have survived in the present collection. During childhood I paid little attention to his books but in later years I too became a collector. During the war I was evacuated to the Lake District and my school in Keswick incorporated Greta Hall, where Coleridge lived with Robert Southey and his family. So from an early age the Lake Poets were a significant part of my life and a focus of my book collecting.
    [Show full text]
  • King Mob Echo: from Gordon Riots to Situationists & Sex Pistols
    KING MOB ECHO FROM 1780 GORDON RIOTS TO SITUATIONISTS SEX PISTOLS AND BEYOND BY TOM VAGUE INCOMPLETE WORKS OF KING MOB WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES DARK STAR LONDON ·- - � --- Printed by Polestar AUP Aberdeen Limited, Rareness Rd., Altens Industrial Estate, Aberdeen AB12 3LE § 11JJJDJJDILIEJMIIENf1r 1f(Q) KIINCGr JMI(Q)IB3 JECCIHI(Q) ENGLISH SECTION OF THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL IF([J)IF ffiIE V ([J) IL lUilII ([J) W §IFIEIEIIJ) IHIII§il([J) ffiY ADDITIONAL RESEARCH BY DEREK HARRIS AND MALCOLM HOPKINS Illustrations: 'The Riots in Moorfields' (cover), 'The London Riots', 'at Langdale's' by 'Phiz' Hablot K. Browne, Horwood's 1792-9 'Plan of London', 'The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle', 'Oliver Twist Manifesto' by Malcolm McLaren. Vagrants and historical shout outs: Sandra Belgrave, Stewart Home, Mark Jackson, Mark Saunders, Joe D. Stevens at NDTC, Boz & Phiz, J. Paul de Castro, Blue Bredren, Cockney Visionaries, Dempsey, Boss Goodman, Lord George Gordon, Chris Gray, Jonathon Green, Jefferson Hack, Christopher Hibbert, Hoppy, Ian Gilmour, Ish, Dzifa & Simone at The Grape, Barry Jennings, Joe Jones, Shaun Kerr, Layla, Lucas, Malcolm McLaren, John Mead, Simon Morrissey, Don Nicholson-Smith, Michel Prigent (pre-publicity), Charlie Radcliffe, Jamie Reid, George Robertson & Melinda Mash, Dragan Rad, George Rude, Naveen Saleh, Jon Savage, Valerie Solanas, Carolyn Starren & co at Kensington Library, Mark Stewart, Toko, Alex Trocchi, Fred & Judy Vermorel, Warren, Dr. Watson, Viv Westwood, Jack Wilkes, Dave & Stuart Wise Soundtrack: 'It's a London Thing' Scott Garcia, 'Going Mobile' The Who, 'Living for the City' Stevie Wonder, 'Boston Tea Party' Alex Harvey, 'Catholic Day' Adam and the Ants, 'Do the Strand' Roxy Music', 'Rev.
    [Show full text]
  • 67 - County of London Sessions
    RESEARCH GUIDE 67 - County of London Sessions CONTENTS Introduction References and Catalogues Judicial Records Mental Deficiency Acts Licensing Records Indexes of records deposited with the Clerk of the Peace Parliamentary Deposited Plans Other copies of Parliamentary Deposited Plans Other Plans Highway Diversion and Stopping Up Orders Electrical Lighting Provisional Orders Introduction This research guide is a brief introduction to some of the more used series of records of the County of London Sessions. Until 1971 the Justices of the Peace for each county and many boroughs were responsible for holding Sessions of the Peace where criminal cases were tried before a jury. These were usually known as the Quarter Sessions because originally they were held four times a year, but in London they were held every month. More serious cases such as murder, rape, blasphemy, bigamy, libel, certain types of bribery and forgery, and offences under the Official Secrets Acts, were referred to the Central Criminal Court or outside London, to the assizes. The Justices also had other responsibilities including the confirmation of new licences granted to public houses, the stopping up and diversion of highways, and the registration and deposit of maps and documents for public record. The County of London was a new county which was formed in April 1889 from part of Middlesex north of the Thames and parts of Kent and Surrey south of the Thames. The Local Government Act 1888 which created the County of London also provided for a new court of quarter sessions which was given jurisdiction over the whole of the new administrative county except for the City of London which retained its own quarter sessions, the City of London Sessions, whose records are held by London Metropolitan Archives (CLA/047).
    [Show full text]
  • A Pilgrimage Through English History and Culture (M-S)
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Faculty Publications 2009-05-01 A Pilgrimage Through English History and Culture (M-S) Gary P. Gillum [email protected] Susan Wheelwright O'Connor Alexa Hysi Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub Part of the English Language and Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Gillum, Gary P.; O'Connor, Susan Wheelwright; and Hysi, Alexa, "A Pilgrimage Through English History and Culture (M-S)" (2009). Faculty Publications. 11. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/11 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. 1462 MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLÒ, 1469-1527 Rare 854.318 N416e 1675 The Works of the famous Nicolas Machiavel: citizen and Secretary of Florence. Written Originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully Translated into English London: Printed for J.S., 1675. Description: [24], 529 [21]p. ; 32 cm. References: Wing M128. Subjects: Political science. Political ethics. War. Florence (Italy)--History. Added Author: Neville, Henry, 1620-1694, tr. Contents: -The History of florence.-The Prince.-The original of the Guelf and Ghibilin Factions.-The life of Castruccio Castracani.-The Murther of Vitelli, &c. by Duke Valentino.-The State of France.- The State of Germany.-The Marriage of Belphegor, a Novel.-Nicholas Machiavel's Letter in Vindication of Himself and His Writings. Notes: Printer's device on title-page. Title enclosed within double line rule border. Head pieces. Translated into English by Henry Neville.
    [Show full text]
  • Pracy Family History from Tudor Times to the 1920S
    Pracy family history: the origins, growth and scattering of a Wiltshire and East London family from Tudor times to the 1920s, 5th edition (illustrated) by David Pracy (b. 1946) List of illustrations and captions ..................................................................................... 2 Note: what’s new ............................................................................................................ 5 Part 1: Wiltshire ............................................................................................................. 6 1. Presseys, Precys and Pracys ................................................................................... 7 2. Bishopstone ............................................................................................................ 8 3. The early Precys ................................................................................................... 11 4. The two Samuels .................................................................................................. 15 5. The decline of the Precys in Bishopstone ............................................................ 20 Part 2: The move to London ......................................................................................... 23 6. Edward Prascey (1707-1780) and his sister Elizabeth’s descendants .................. 23 7. Three London apprentices and their families........................................................ 34 8. Edmund the baker (1705-1763) and his family ..................................................
    [Show full text]
  • LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES GAOL DELIVERY SESSIONS at the OLD BAILEY POST-1754 OB Page 1 Reference Description Dates CALENDARS
    LONDON METROPOLITAN ARCHIVES Page 1 GAOL DELIVERY SESSIONS AT THE OLD BAILEY POST-1754 OB Reference Description Dates CALENDARS AND INDEXES Calendars of indictments OB/C/J/001 List of Newgate prisoners indicted for trial at the 1754 Oct-1773 Not available for general access Old Bailey Dec Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/037 OB/C/J/002 List of Newgate prisoners indicted for trial at the 1774 Jan-1790 Not available for general access Old Bailey Dec Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/048; X001/182 OB/C/J/003 List of Newgate prisoners indicted for trial at the 1791 Jan-1811 Not available for general access Old Bailey Dec Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/037 OB/C/J/004 List of Newgate prisoners indicted for trial at the 1812 Jan-1824 Not available for general access Old Bailey Jan Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/038 OB/C/J/005 List of Newgate prisoners indicted for trial at the 1824 Apr-1832 Not available for general access Old Bailey Nov Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/038 Calendars of prisoners OB/C/P/001 List of Newgate prisoners awaiting trial at the 1820 Jan 12 Not available for general access Old Bailey -1820 Dec 6 Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/039 Please use microfilm OB/C/P/002 List of Newgate prisoners awaiting trial at the 1821 Jan 10 Not available for general access Old Bailey -1821 Dec 5 Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/039 Please use microfilm OB/C/P/003 List of Newgate prisoners awaiting trial at the 1822 Jan 9 Not available for general access Old Bailey -Dec 4 Please use microfilm 1 volume X071/039 Please use
    [Show full text]
  • The Prosecutorial Origins of Defence Counsel in the Eighteenth Century: the Appearance of Solicitors
    Cambridge Law Journal, 58(2), July 1999,pp. 314-365 Printed in Great Britain THE PROSECUTORIAL ORIGINS OF DEFENCE COUNSEL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: THE APPEARANCE OF SOLICITORS JOHN H. LANGBEIN* I. THE RULE AGAINST DEFENCE COUNSEL ENGLISH criminal procedure was for centuries organised on the principle that a person accused of a serious crime should not be represented by counsel at trial. When the surviving sources first allow us to see something of how criminal trials in cases of treason and felony were conducted, we see the judges insistently enforcing the prohibition on defence counsel.' Into the eighteenth century, the leading treatise on criminal procedure, Serjeant William Hawkins' Pleas of the Crown, endorsed the rule against defence counsel. Since any defendant "of Common Understanding may as properly [defend himself] as if he were the best Lawyer", Hawkins explained in 1721, "it requires no manner of Skill to make a plain and honest Defence .. "2 The notion that criminal defence was a suitable do-it-yourself activity arose at a time when the whole of the criminal trial was expected to transpire as a lawyer-free contest of amateurs. The prosecution was also unrepresented. The victim of the crime usually served as the prosecutor,3 aided by other witnesses and sometimes by the lay constable. A lay magistrate, the justice of the peace, organised Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History, Yale University; Arthur Goodhart Professor in Legal Science, Cambridge University, 1997-98. 1 adhere in this article to conventions that I have followed in prior work using manuscript and antiquarian sources.
    [Show full text]
  • The Newgate Calendar Edited by Donal Ó Danachair Supplement 2
    The Newgate Calendar Edited By Donal Ó Danachair Supplement 2 Published by the Ex-classics Project, 2016 http://www.exclassics.com Public Domain THE NEWGATE CALENDAR CONTENTS GERALD FITZGERALD Executed For Murder, 24th of December, 1703 ...............10 JOHN BIGG Convicted of Altering a Bank Note ........................................................11 JOHN GORDON, WILLIAM KERR AND JOHN DORRELL Jacobites Executed for High Treason ...............................................................................................................12 JOHN MATTHEWS Executed for High Treason in Printing a Jacobite Pamphlet...13 FRANCIS BRIGHTWELL AND BENJAMIN BRIGHTWELL Tried For a Highway Robbery........................................................................................................................15 ANTHONY DRURY Executed for Highway Robbery ...............................................18 JAMES CARNEGIE, ESQ. Tried for Murder.............................................................20 MARTIN NOWLAND Executed for High Treason....................................................22 JAMES ANNESLEY, ESQ, AND JOSEPH REDDING Tried for Murder................24 RICHARD BIGGS Executed near Bath for the Murder of his Wife, 14th September, 1748..............................................................................................................................28 JOHN LANCASTER Executed for Housebreaking, 24th September, 1748................29 SAMUEL HILL Executed for Murdering his Landlady, 23d of March, 1762............31 JOHN
    [Show full text]
  • Conservation Plan Old Sessions House 22 Clerkenwell
    CONSERVATION PLAN OLD SESSIONS HOUSE 22 CLERKENWELL GREEN LONDON EC1R ONA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. The Old Sessions House is one of the finest and most important historic buildings in Clerkenwell. Constructed in the late eighteenth century as the Middlesex Sessions House for the magistrates’ courts, it is a high-status building intended to dominate Clerkenwell Green and its surroundings. In 1860 onwards it was re-modelled and extended to present grander elevations to the newly laid out Farringdon and Clerkenwell Roads. Following the relocation of the magistrates courts in 1920 the premises became the headquarters of Avery Scales, and in the 1970s the building was acquired as a Masonic Lodge who occupied the premises until 2013. The new owners, Ted and Oliver Grebelius are therefore only the fourth proprietors in a 235 year history. 2. This Conservation Plan evaluates the historic and architectural significance of the building and its surviving fabric. It sets out the risks and opportunities in the context of the building’s condition, status and current conservation policy. It makes proposals for the repair and enhancement of the building, including a strategy of phased work. It suggests how improvements can be made to the setting of the building within the surrounding environment of Clerkenwell Green and Farringdon Lane. INTRODUCTION 3. This Conservation Plan for the Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green, has been commissioned by Oliver and Ted Grebelius, who acquired the building in late 2013. The Plan aims to inform and direct an appropriate way forward to re-use this important historic building and its immediate environs.
    [Show full text]
  • Vague 33 Hm King Mob the Gordon Riots
    VAGUE 33 HM KING MOB THE GORDON RIOTS THE MADNESS OF LORD GEORGE AND THE GREAT LONDON RIOTS OF 1780 Gordon Riots 230 th anniversary Malcolm McLaren tribute edition Tom Vague London Psychogeography 2010 The Riot in Broad Street Francis Wheatley ‘When tumult lately burst his prison door and set plebeian thousands in a roar, when he usurped authority’s just place and dared to look his master in the face; when the rude rabble’s watchword was destroy and blazing London seemed a second Troy.’ William Cowper ‘Table Talk’ 1781 ‘I wander through each dirty street, near where the dirty Thames does flow, and in every face I meet marks of weakness marks of woe, in every cry of every man, in every child’s cry of fear, in every voice in every ban, the German forged links I hear, but most the chimney sweepers cry, blackens over the church walls, and the hapless soldiers sigh, runs in blood down palace walls.’ William Blake ‘London’ 1792 ‘The Gordon riots made a profound impression on contemporaries. They took place at a time of acute political crisis, at the most dangerous moment of the American war, when the country, after numerous defeats and counter-alliances, found itself virtually isolated. At their height, on the night of June 7 1780, London appeared to onlookers to be a sea of flames. ‘I remember’, wrote Horace Walpole on the 8 th , ‘the Excise and Gin Act and the rebels at Derby and Wilkes’ interlude and the French at Plymouth, or I should have a very bad memory; but I never till last night saw London and Southwark in flames!’ Sebastian Mercier, in his Tableau de Paris , wrote 9 years before the attack on the Bastille that such ‘terrors and alarms’ as were spread by Lord George Gordon in London would be inconceivable in a city as well-policed as Paris.’ George Rude ‘The Gordon Riots’ 1955 Paris and London in the 18 th Century 1688 After the Protestant Duke of Monmouth rebellion was crushed by Judge Jeffreys’ Bloody Assizes, James II’s attempted Catholic revival resulted in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ and the Bill of Rights.
    [Show full text]