College Building, City University and Attached Railings

Details

ISLINGTON

TQ3182NE ST JOHN STREET 635-1/69/801 (East side) 29/09/72 College Building, City University and attached railings

GV II

Technical institute, now part of the City University. Built as the Northampton Institute in 1894-6 to the designs of E.W.Mountford; the wing directly north of the tower and the former swimming bath to the rear rebuilt in 1953-5, following war damage, to the designs of Owen Campbell Jones. Red brick set in English bond with stone dressings; roofs of graded slate. The principal accent is the entrance tower in St John Street, square in plan up to the cornice: round-arched entrance framed by broad pilasters with decorative wrought iron gates; a symbolic frieze carved in low relief by Horace and Paul Raphael Montford extends over the entrance and embraces the pilasters; open scrolled pediment above; then three tiers of windows between pilasters, that to the first floor single, segmental-arched with stone voussoirs breaking through the mouldings of the archivolt, to the second floor three narrow segmental-arched windows, to the third a lunette, again with voussoirs breaking through the archivolt; modillion cornice; the tower then becomes octagonal in plan with semi-circular bays to the corners, a large clock projecting over St John Street and stone balustrade; an open octagon, flanked by inverted consoles, supports the lead-covered dome. The principal elevations of 1896 run from the tower southwards into Wyclif Street and Northampton Square: four storeys over basement, the dormers in St John Street added; the elevations in St John Street and the first four windows of the return in Wyclif Street are more elabrately detailed with moulded stone architraves to windows, sill band to ground floor, storey band between ground and first floors, deep cornice with egg-and-dart moulding and modillion at sill level of third floor, and springing band above; all windows flat-arched with 9/9 sashes to ground and first floors, except that two shallow pedimented bays of two-window range project in St John Street and these have segmental-arched windows with stone voussoirs breaking through the mouldings, on the ground and second floors; two second-floor windows in Wyclif Street also of this design. A flat-arched entrance with broken pediment links this part with the plainer elevations in Wyclif Street: broad round-arched windows to ground floor, segmental-arched to first and second floor, principal cornice above first-floor windows, secondary cornice to second floor, parapet; dormers with segmental pediments in mansard roof. There are three shallow, four-storey bays with segmental pediments, and at the foot of each the round-arched windows have a moulded stone archivolt interrupted by voussoirs. At the corner of Wyclif Street and Northampton Square there is a re-entrant angle each face of which has a shallow segmental portico distyle in antis; this part of the building, and the elevation to Northampton Square, follow the pattern of the St John Street elevations with flat-arched windows to ground floor with moulded stone architraves, first-floor windows mainly round-arched with voussoirs breaking through the archivolt, second-floor windows flat-arched again, with moulded stone architraves, and stone banding to the brickwork. To the north of the tower in St John Street is a wing of two storeys over basement, five-window range, rebuilt in 1953-1955. Ground-floor windows flat-arched, first-floor segmental arched, with chamfered brick buttresses between, the right-hand first-floor window blank. Sculpted panels depicting technology above first-floor windows; cornice and parapet. The northernmost part of the building, on the corner of St John Street and Spencer Street is wedge-shaped in plan, two storeys leading back to a three-storey five-sided apse. Flat-arched entrance at the corner under a shallow segmental moulding with Gibbs surround; above, an aedicule enclosing a round-arched niche,with blocked columns, open pediment and prominent voussoirs to the niche.empty aedicular niche. Ground-floor windows flat-arched, first-floor segmental-arched with stone archivolts; parapet; roof rises to an octagon at the corner with ogee dome and spirelet. Area railings to St John Street and Wyclif Street with decorative scrollwork and plain finials.

Listing NGR: TQ3162982638

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

369302

Legacy System:

LBS

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