Former Middlesex Sessions House

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 12 March 2026 to update the Name and Address and reformat the text to current standards

TQ3182SE
635-1/74/283

ISLINGTON
CLERKENWELL GREEN (South West side)
Former Middlesex Sessions House

(Formerly Listed as Nos.120A AND 122 Clerkenwell Conference Centre, previously listed as CLERKENWELL GREEN Avery House)

29/12/50

GV
II*

Former Middlesex Sessions House, later Clerkenwell Conference Centre and Masonic Lodge. c.1778-1782, by Thomas Rogers; enlarged, and remodelled on all but the principal front in 1860 by Frederick Hyde Pownall; the ashlar-faced wing to the south added at some time between 1876 and 1914. Portland stone to the principal elevation and in part elsewhere; the north elevation in Clerkenwell Green, that in Farringdon Lane, and part of that in Clerkenwell Road stuccoed with Portland stone dressings; roofs of lead where visible.

The principal front, facing into Clerkenwell Green, is of three storeys over basement, five-window range. The middle three bays of the ground floor project slightly to carry a giant order of four engaged Ionic columns under a pediment, the outer bays flanked by engaged Ionic pilasters. Ground floor has chamfered rustication interrupted by square-cut springing bands; round-arched openings with central entrance and round-arched windows deeply recessed, the entrance having glazed side-lights and overlight, the windows set in a panel of ashlar. The central and outer first-floor windows round-arched with archivolt, impost blocks and reeded springing band; this band runs across the lintels of the intermediate windows. Low-relief carved panels by Joseph Nollekens over windows: oval medallions of Justice and Mercy, portrait of George III in the central bay, and fasces and swords in the outer bays. Sashes of original design with radiating glazing bars to ground-floor windows. Panelled frieze, modillion cornice, blocking course and pediment with a medallion bearing the armorial scimitars of Middlesex against a background of foliage in the tympanum; attic storey of 1860 with round-arched windows and roof of lead; lead-covered dome over the centre of the building.

A two-storey wing south of the principal front runs round into Clerkenwell Road with a three-sided bay at the corner and ground and first floors of ashlar; the elevational treatment here is broadly similar to that by Pownall on the rest of the Clerkenwell Road front and the north front in Clerkenwell Green except for the facing material: basement/ground floor of rusticated stonework with flat-arched openings having architraves formed of chamfered quoins; broad cill band to first floor, Gibbs surround to windows; storey band; second floor windows have the effect of eared architraves at heads, bracketed sills and keystones; modillion cornice; third-floor balustrade to ashlar-faced wing; third-floor windows to rest are flat-arched with plain architraves and keystones,the three central windows in Clerkenwell Green with pediments; parapet. Many 6/6 sashes of original design to north elevation in Clerkenwell Green, and a few to other elevations.

The Farringdon Lane elevation has an outer bay to either side corresponding with the side elevations, but the three central windows form a shallow segmental bay with segmental-arched openings to the ground floor, the central entrance under a cartouche with coat of arms; four rusticated pilasters flank the first- and second-floor windows which are flat-arched with pilasters and triglyph frieze to first floor, and have balustrades and the effect of eared architraves on the second floor; modillion cornice; former circular windows to attic storey now enlarged. Cast-iron railings to area of 1860.

INTERIOR: . Double-height central hall, square in plan with central staircase rising in a single flight to a gallery which runs all round the room, the staircase and gallery by Pownall; the gallery is carried on cast-iron columns with foliage ornament and capitals, and on scrolled brackets; it is stepped up on the east side to the former Court Room; railings to staircase and balustrade to gallery in iron and brass with characteristic mid-Victorian naturalistic and structural forms. The upper part of the room has Ionic pilasters on three sides and engaged Ionic columns facing the former Court Room, supporting a frieze decorated with roundels of fasces and caducei alternately, and modillion cornice; the intervening wall is divided horizontally by a dentil cornice and has niches and blank panels in the spaces. Round-arched entrance to the former Court Room with enrichments by Pownall, the architrave consisting of pilasters with nail-head ornament, double consoles and archivolt decorated with foliage; the recessed tympanum having the armorial scimitars of Middlesex surrounded by foliage; two entrances on the facing wall with architraves of pilasters with nailhead ornament, and dentil cornice on consoles. Arcaded drum having circular and semi-circular windows, some blank, and royal coat of arms in high relief over the entrance to the Court Room; the spandrels filled with motifs in roundels enriched with oak leaf ornament; coffered dome, and lantern added by Pownall.

The former Court Room, now Lodge Room no. 2 has decorations partly the work of Pownall, including an elaborate panelled plaster ceiling, the ribs decorated with guilloche ornament and egg-and-dart and modillion details, the nine panels filled with roundels apparently of recent date. The principal room to the west, in the 1860 extension, has been divided horizontally, but the remains of the ceiling can be seen in Lodge Room no 5: frieze of roundels in scrolling foliage with fasces and caducei alternately; modillion cornice and panel of Vitruvian scroll ornament to ceiling light. Lodge Room no 3, in the south wing of c.1900, has a dentil cornice, and octagonal panelled lantern surrounded by bands of foliage. Staircase in the north-west corner of the building, to four storeys, with scrolled iron balusters and ramped handrail; another staircase on the south side, from first to third floors, with curtail step, wreathed and ramped handrail, cast-iron newels and balusters, the balusters of scrolled design.

(Historians' file, English Heritage London Division).

Listing NGR: TQ3150582098

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

368774

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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