St Clement's Watch House

St Clement's Watch House, Strand Lane WC2

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Overview

Parish watch house. Possible early C18 in origin although early C19 in appearance. Incorporated in King's College campus in C20, now offices. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1264259
Date first listed:: 05-Feb-1970
List Entry Name:: St Clement's Watch House
Statutory Address:: St Clement's Watch House, Strand Lane WC2

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Date:: 2003-10-10
Reference:: IOE01/10830/21
Rights:: © Mr Anthony Rau. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1264259
Date first listed:: 05-Feb-1970
Date of most recent amendment:: 05-Feb-2014
List Entry Name:: St Clement's Watch House
Statutory Address 1:: St Clement's Watch House, Strand Lane WC2

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: St Clement's Watch House, Strand Lane WC2

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: City of Westminster (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ3083980892

Summary

Parish watch house. Possible early C18 in origin although early C19 in appearance. Incorporated in King's College campus in C20, now offices.

Reasons for Designation

St Clements Watch House is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest; as a rare surviving example of a London parochial watch house, possibly with early-C18 origins, providing evidence for local policing before the establishment of a full-time police force; * Group Value: with the Roman Bath, No. 5 Strand Lane and Nos. 33 and 34 Surrey Street.

History

Although of early-C19 appearance, the former watch house on Strand Lane may have it its origins in a ‘prison’ referred to as early as 1605. A subsequent entry in the Calendar of Treasury Papers for 4 May 1724 states that ’In the Strand Lane there is a tenement inhabited by one of the beadles of the parish of St. Clements Danes, which is built across the lane, with a passage underneath. The timbers are fastened into the wall of Somerset House, part of which has been pulled down, and a chimney belonging to the Beadles house is built up with the wall, and stands thereon’. It continues by noting that it adjoins a building called the Old Waterhouse, a likely reference to the ‘Roman Bath’ at No. 5 Strand Lane. Although the building is not shown on Horwood’s map of 1799 it seems that a watch house has existed on the site since at least 1724, and it is possible that the present building may retain early-C18 fabric. The building is now part of King’s College and is interconnected with the rest of the campus.

Of medieval origin, the watch, until the foundation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829, patrolled London’s streets at night and provided the city’s principal, if imperfect, policing body. Organised at parish and ward level, from the late C17 watch houses began to be provided for the mustering of the watchmen and providing lock-ups for the temporary incarceration of those arrested.

Details

MATERIALS: stuccoed brick with stone copings. Timber framing to covered way.

PLAN: L-shaped with one main room per floor. The western part bridges Strand Lane above ground-floor level and adjoins the former boundary wall of Somerset House.

EXTERIOR: three-storeys with mansard roof set behind a parapet. The south elevation of the western range is two bays wide with a casement window on the ground floor, the western bay taken up by the covered way. The first floor has two French casements with margin glazing screened by a Regency tent-roof cast-iron verandah-balcony with anthemion pattern standards and rails. The second floor has two recessed sash windows with glazing bars. The north elevation is only of a single bay with French casements to the first and second floors. The covered way over Strand Lane is supported on large timbers with chamfered edges and has two doorways set in the eastern wall. The northern one has a pilastered timber door surround with diamond patterned capitals and rectangular fanlight; the southern is set into a plain recessed opening with a segmental arch. A chimney, supported on corbels, visible below the covered way, adjoins the former boundary wall.

The eastern elevation of the east range, fronting onto Strand Lane to the north of the covered way, is of two bays. The ground floor has a plain recessed entrance with a transom in the north bay and a recessed timber sash window with glazing bars in the south bay. The upper floors have centrally placed single windows with horizontal sliding sashes. The mansard roof has a central dormer.

INTERIOR: the interiors have been modernised and no visible historic features remain. The plan form is probably as built, although access has been created to link the interior to the adjoining parts of the King’s College campus.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 428303
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, The Buildings of England: London 6 Westminster, (2003), 371
Websites
Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Vol. 24: Addenda, 1605-1668, pp. 36-7, accessed from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=112679
Calendar of Treasury Papers, Volume 6: 1720-1728 - entry for 4 May 1724 , accessed from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=85102

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.