Drill Hall Arts Centre and Attached Railings
DRILL HALL ARTS CENTRE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, 16, CHENIES STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1242933
- Date first listed:
- 10-Oct-1997
- List Entry Name:
- Drill Hall Arts Centre and Attached Railings
- Statutory Address:
- DRILL HALL ARTS CENTRE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, 16, CHENIES STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-10-03
- Reference:
- IOE01/12695/34
- Rights:
- © Mr Anthony Rau. Source: Historic England Archive
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1242933
- Date first listed:
- 10-Oct-1997
- List Entry Name:
- Drill Hall Arts Centre and Attached Railings
- Statutory Address 1:
- DRILL HALL ARTS CENTRE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, 16, CHENIES STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- DRILL HALL ARTS CENTRE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, 16, CHENIES STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Camden (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 29659 81847
Details
CAMDEN
TQ2981NE CHENIES STREET
798-1/99/203 (South side)
10/10/97 No.16
Drill Hall Arts Centre and attached
railings
GV II
Drill hall, now an arts centre. 1882-3. By Samuel Knight. For
the Bloomsbury Rifles. Red brick with sandstone dressings and
continuous sill strings. Tiled roof with central gable.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement. 3-window symmetrical facade
with attached, taller, battlemented entrance tower to left.
Four-centred entrance arch with a hood mould having carved
Burgesian crowned lion label-stops and rose and riband
spandrels. Above, a 3-light transom and mullion oriel window.
2nd floor, narrow tower window with over-panel depicting the
hanging horn, symbol of the Rifle Brigade (to which the
Bloomsbury Rifles was affiliated). Above this, 3 shields
portraying, from left to right, the arms of the Duke of
Bedford (the ground landlord), the royal arms and those of the
county of Middlesex. To right, 3-light transom and mullion
windows with gauged brick flat-arch heads, the ground and 1st
floor having hood moulds with label stops in the form of
carved heads; those to ground floor being moustached
volunteers' heads. Central 2nd floor window pointed with hood
mould and gable.
INTERIOR: survives largely intact with a stair having turned
rails. Drill hall to rear (now a theatre) with metal trussed
roof and glazed lantern running the full length of the room;
originally with a small stage to the south, now enclosed. The
present bar was the mess room and has a gothic chimney-piece
with sunken quatrefoils. 1st floor officers' mess with a good
Gothic chimney-piece of Caen stone, enriched with a
castellated canopy and the arms of commanding officers of the
regiment; ceiling and walls panelled with diagonally-set deal
planks. Adjoining small room with oriel window was the
colonel's room; also with a Gothic fireplace and panelling and
more ornate fittings. A 2nd floor former billiard room, above
the officers' mess, with a chimney-piece similar to that in
the ground floor mess.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings with urn
finials to areas.
HISTORICAL NOTE: rifle volunteer corps sprung up in 1859-60 as
a popular response to the perceived threat of invasion from
France. The volunteer units were raised principally from the
lower middle and upper working classes on a local basis.
Patriotic in origin, they were part military forerunners of
the Territorial Army and part semi-sporting outfits which
offered comradeship with organised outdoor leisure activities
and exotic uniforms. None saw action until the Boer War. The
Bloomsbury Rifles were founded in 1859 by Thomas Hughes, whose
Tom Brown's Schooldays had been published the previous year.
The drill hall, necessary for both military practice and
social intercourse was funded by the commanding officer,
Lieut-Col. Richards; Knight, the architect, had a practice at
Cornhill and was a captain in the regiment.
Listing NGR: TQ2965981847
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 476888
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
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