23-28 Charterhouse Square London

Historic Context Report March 2015

Richard Griffiths Architects is the trading name of Richard Griffiths Architects Ltd Introduction

This document has been prepared by Richard Griffiths Architects as background information for the pre-application discussions for the proposed adaptation and renewal of 23-28 Charterhouse Square. It summarises the historical development of the Square and the buildings around it. An understanding of the rich history of the Square can help to inform the pre-application discussions, situating the proposed development in its heritage context.

We wish to acknowledge, with thanks, that much of the historical material in this report has been gathered from The Survey of London Vol 46 South and East Clerkenwell and from The Survey of London Monograph 18: The Charterhouse.

23-28 Charterhouse Square, London | Historic Context Report | March 2015 | 2 Summary of the development of the area

Key plan, with building numbers as referred to in this text

23-28 Charterhouse Square, London | Historic Context Report | March 2015 | 3 The site of Charterhouse Square was on the north-western edge of medieval and early modern London. In 1370 a Carthusian Priory was established, with its main buildings just to the north of the present Square, and its outer precincts on the site of the Square itself. The Priory was dissolved in 1538 and its buildings converted to various uses, domestic and other, until 1611 when it became Suttons Hospital and the Charterhouse School. The Hospital remains, as a residence for elderly men, but the School moved to Surrey in the 1870s.

The Square itself has remained essentially the same size and shape since the sixteenth century, though its landscaping and furnishing have changed many times, as have its management arrangements. On the north side the boundary between Suttons Hospital and the Square is largely unchanged: the Gatehouse and wall are late-medieval structures. Elsewhere the perimeter of the Square was built up with terraced houses at the end of the seventeenth century.

Some of the original seventeenth century houses still remain; numbers 4-5 and 12-14 Charterhouse Square. The facades of 4-5, though changed, still exhibit the basic features of good-quality houses of the period and important internal features remain. Numbers 12-14 have been more radically adapted, though highly signiﬁcant interior elements remain.

Fine late seventeenth century houses remained at numbers 6-9 and 10-11: the latter until the mid-1930s and the former until the Second World War. Numbers 6-9 became the site of Florin Court, a striking example of the late 1930s pattern of ﬂat building in central London. Numbers 10-11 were replaced by an office block in the 1950s.

Seventeenth century houses of lesser quality were built round the north-west, west and south sides of the Square. These have all been demolished and were replaced in the nineteenth and early twentieth century by purpose built warehouses (numbers 23-28 and 33-43) and by a purpose-built hotel (now The Malmaison).

A ﬁnal stage of redevelopment took place on the west side of the Square (numbers 23-28) in the post-war period with the demolition of the 1880s warehouse building and its phased replacement by the Collett hat factory. This in turn was adapted for banking use in the 1970s.

Three important proposals will bear fruit in the near future: the Farringdon East Crossrail station on the south-east edge of the Square; the refurbishment of the Square and its furniture and lighting etc.; and the opening up of part of The Charterhouse to public access as part of the HLF-supported Charterhouse Revealed project.

The social character of the area has changed many times. In the eighteenth century it was a prestigious place to live. In the nineteenth century its social status declined and many houses were converted to offices, workshops and lodging houses. Most of the houses were in turn demolished and replaced by purpose-built warehouses. In the last ﬁfty years the character of the area has changed again: industry has moved out and creative and office uses dominate. Finally, the process of conversion back to residential use, now gathering pace in central London, can be seen at numbers 2 and 3 in the south-east corner of the Square.

23-28 Charterhouse Square, London | Historic Context Report | March 2015 | 4 1560’s 1676

1720 1755

1730

1873

23-28 Charterhouse Square, London | Historic Context Report | March 2015 | 7