Details
1.
5186 ST CLEMENT'S ROAD
(South Side)
House of Bethany
SZ l092 23/219
II*
2.
1874-5, enlarged 1880, one of R Norman Shaw's boldest works, built largely of
concrete with W H Lascelles as contractor. the original Orphanage wing, running
east-west, has 2 storeys and dormers: ground floor of concrete with stone-mullioned
windows, 1st floor tilehung, 4-light windows with timber mullions and transom.
On each flank 4 big projecting chimneybreasts with small inset windows, each
with high cruciform stack (with brick modillion cornice ) rising out of gable,
continuous strips of dormer between, each with 10 lights, 2 transoms and a pair
of hipped roofs. 1 chimneystack on north cut down. Main roofs steeply pitched,
with continuous ridge, east gable of 4 storeys, with half-timbered apex projecting
on 3 moulded brackets and on off-centre canted oriel, itself on 3 brackets, narrow
west gable of red brick, with segment-headed relieving arches to ground floor
windows, segment-headed lst floor windows and stone-mullioned 2nd floor window,
flanked on each side by hipped roof slope with hipped dormer. Gate tower at
north-west corner, brick with stone dressings, 3 storeys, moulded porch arch
dying into jambs, flanked by massive buttresses, 6-light and 4-light mullioned
windows over, under hipped roof on overhanging eaves, with ornamental weathervane.
Attached to it 2-storey wing, tilehung on upper floor, with entrance to service
yard under ('farmyard' type, with open timber brackets to ceiling) and brick-walled
visitors' room, chimneystack with heavy capping on ridge. Interiors modernised
after war damage. Convent wing at right-angles, 1880, also 2 storeys and dormers,
concrete below and tilehanging above, big chimneys on gable end, that at south
with 2nds floor window recessed within round arch in chimneybreast. Tilehung
gabled dormers with pairs of transomed windows to cells, glazing bars below,
leading above. Ground floor windows with stone mullions and transoms. 2-storey
concrete gable to staircase on west, 1st floor tile-hung oriel to former Sister
Superior's room (now oratory) on east. Chapel and cloister added 1928-9, William
G Newton and Partners. Altar in nave with sculptured panel of Annunciation and
2 statues, set against marble retable, originally High Altar of Chapel by Ernest
Newton, 1892, or former Mother House at Clerkenwell, London, also from Clerkenwell
2 angels on west gallery and statue of Our Lady under pinnacled canopy by Sir
Ninian Comper.
Listing NGR: SZ1086892104
