Summary
Former market and concert hall, now a bar and restaurant. Built in 1858-1859 to the design of the architect Edward Middleton Barry in Italianate style alongside the Royal Opera House. The contractors were Messrs Lucas with the ironwork supplied by Messrs Grissell of the Regent’s Canal Ironworks. Heavily damaged by fire in 1956 and subsequently repaired. Dismantled and refurbished in 1996-2000 under a scheme by Dixon Jones BDP by the contractors Graham Welding and D.M. Foundries. The south portico and four bays were moved to Borough Market and the rest re-erected with a replica of the original barrel-vaulted roof. Further alterations in 2015-2018. The modern basement is excluded from the listing.
Reasons for Designation
The Floral Hall, originally built in 1858-1859 to the design of E M Barry alongside the Royal Opera House, later damaged by fire and restored in 1996-2000, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* For the realisation of an important early conception by Frederick Gye, manager of the opera house, who had a vision for a glass flower market as early as 1842, many years prior to the construction of the Kew Palm House and Crystal Palace;
* For its close architectural and historic relationship with the Royal Opera House, one of the great Victorian international opera houses of the world, for which it was designed to provide a supplementary income as a flower market and concert hall;
* as one of London’s most famous market buildings from 1887 when it was integrated into Covent Garden Market.
Architectural interest:
* as a fine example of Victorian technological innovation, heralded in 1859 as ‘the first time anything of this kind has been attempted in glass and iron only’ (See History);
* for the high quality of its Italianate design, including the enormous radial fanlight to the barrel-vaulted roof and ornate ironwork to the pilasters, spandrels, frieze and cresting;
* for the decorative detailing to the interior, including the Corinthian cast-iron columns and arcade with ornate perforated brackets cast with Gothic rose and dagger tracery;
* as an important design by the major Victorian architect E M Barry who designed a number of other significant listed buildings, including the Royal Opera House (Grade I), Charing Cross Hotel (Grade II), the Eleanor Cross (Grade II*) and St Saviour’s Church (Grade II), as well as completing the Palace of Westminster (Grade I) and Halifax Town Hall (Grade II*).
Group value:
* as a complementary design to the contemporary Royal Opera House (Grade I) within the Covent Garden Conservation Area.
History
The Royal Opera House is the third theatre on the Covent Garden site (Grade I-listed, see National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1066392 for a history of the building). The first, the Theatre Royal, was built in 1732 to the design of the architect Edward Shepherd under the patronage of the theatre manager and director John Rich. Major alterations were made to the auditorium by Henry Holland in 1792 but in 1808 the building burnt down. A new theatre opened in 1809 designed by the architect Robert Smirke in Greek Revival style. That saw many dramatic triumphs and innovations before being recast as the Royal Italian Opera House in 1847. This was lost to fire in 1856. A third theatre, designed by Edward Middleton Barry in neoclassical style, opened in 1858 and is the current building immediately to the north of the Floral Hall. The auditorium was orientated broadly east-west in contrast to the north-south alignment of its predecessors, specifically to accommodate the Floral Hall next to it. ‘Italian’ was dropped from the theatre’s title in 1892 to become the ‘Royal Opera House’. The building was extended to the west in the same style in 1979-1982 by the architectural practice Gollins, Melvin and Ward (GMW) and to the south by Dixon Jones and the Building Design Partnership (BDP), largely in a modern style, in 1996-2000 except for a new colonnade facing the Covent Garden Piazza. Today (2024) the Royal Opera House abuts the Floral Hall on three sides.
The following history of the Floral Hall is largely a summary of the account given in the Royal Opera House Conservation Management Plan (Alan Baxter 2017). The Floral Hall was built at the initiative of the theatre manager Frederick Gye. In about 1842, nearly a decade before the construction of The Crystal Palace, he had ‘projected a scheme for connecting the different parts of the metropolis by means of a gigantic arcade’ (The Builder, 15 December 1855, 603-4). In 1845, he read a paper on the subject, proposing an arcade of iron and glass 70ft high that would extend from the Bank of England to Trafalgar Square, with, along its course, an extensive flower garden constructed of glass (Ibid). The destruction of the opera house in 1856 provided the opportunity to revisit the scheme through the construction of the Floral Hall alongside the new theatre. It would provide an additional means of income by operating as a flower market during the day and a concert hall at night. Gye envisaged a relatively low-cost building with a pitched roof and no frontage to the Covent Garden Piazza (Saint 1982, 33). However, the Duke of Bedford’s agent, Charles Parker, insisted upon a more ornamental style with an elevation opening directly onto the Piazza. This culminated in a public dispute with Gye publishing a booklet entitled ‘Notes by Mr Gye on “Mr Parker’s requirements” concerning the Floral Hall’, and a long downturn in relations between the estate and Gye (Alan Baxter 2017, 84).
The Floral Hall was originally designed by Edward Middleton Barry to an elongated L-shape plan with an ornamental wrought-iron dome at the crossing point and huge radial fanlights to the frontages facing Bow Street and Covent Garden Piazza. The barrel-vaulted roofs were covered in glass panels and the Corinthian columns of the arcade were hollow to assist with the ventilation of the basement below. Internally, the walls were painted a grey or lavender colour and the columns were in white with decorative gilding. Brass chandeliers were hung between the columns. In June 1859, The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal heralded the design as ‘among the handsomest markets of its kind in the world…[with a] lofty dome – the first time that ever anything of this kind has been attempted in glass and iron only’ (cited in Alan Baxter 2017, 85). It opened on 7 March 1860 with a grand Volunteers’ ball. Nonetheless, the arguments between Gye and the Bedford Estate continued; an expected contribution of £7,500 towards the cost from the estate was not forthcoming, and the estate resisted Gye's attempts to get a general licence for the use of the building. Gye intended to lease stalls within the hall for the sale of plants, shrubs and flowers, but the estate did not welcome the competition and opened their own flower market nearby; this was replaced with a purpose-built building (now the London Transport Museum) at the south-east corner of the Piazza in 1871 (Ibid 87). As a result, Gye was left with a white elephant that never paid its way. Temporary use was made of it as a concert, exhibition, music or drill hall but the acoustics were poor and standing permission was never conceded by the estate.
In 1887, pressure on the existing space in Covent Garden Market led the Bedford Estate to buy back the leasehold of the Floral Hall for £20,000. It subsequently became one of London’s most famous market buildings. During the Second World War, the basement was adapted for use as an air raid shelter. However, in 1956 a fire caused serious damage to the building, requiring the dismantling of the glass dome and barrel roof. These were not rebuilt but replaced by a simple pitched roof supported by steel trusses. After Covent Garden Market moved to Nine Elms in 1974, the hall was taken over by the Royal Opera House and a wall knocked through between the two buildings. It was variously used as storage space and dressing rooms.
In 1996-2000, the £214m scheme to significantly extend and refurbish the Royal Opera House by Dixon Jones BDP also provided the opportunity to refurbish and rebuild the Floral Hall. The entire structure was taken down and the Bow Street portico, columns and decorative ironwork restored and reassembled on a granite plinth with a new raised ground floor. It was fitted with a replica of the original barrel-vaulted roof. The south portico and four bays of the building were moved to Borough Market, Southwark. The restored Floral Hall became a foyer for the Royal Opera House. A connecting corridor was made to the original entrance hall of the theatre, whilst access points were opened up between the Floral Hall and the Grand Tier and balcony. On the south side of the Floral Hall the staircase was replaced with an escalator taking people up to an amphitheatre level bar and viewing platform into the hall. A modern mezzanine gallery was added on three sides of the hall and a full-height mirror added to the west wall; the mirror giving the illusion the hall is twice its current length, recalling something of its original proportions.
In 2007, the Floral Hall was renamed the Paul Hamlyn Hall after the philanthropist, Lord Hamlyn (1926-2001). Some further alterations were made in around 2018 by the architectural practice Stanton Williams and there is now (2024) a bar and restaurant within the hall.
Details
Former market and concert hall, now a bar and restaurant. Built in 1858-1859 to the design of the architect Edward Middleton Barry in Italianate style alongside the Royal Opera House. The contractors were Messrs Lucas with the ironwork supplied by Messrs Grissell of the Regent’s Canal Ironworks. Heavily damaged by fire in 1956 and subsequently repaired. Dismantled and refurbished in 1996-2000 under a scheme by Dixon Jones BDP by the contractors Graham Welding and D.M. Foundries. The south portico and four bays were moved to Borough Market and the rest re-erected with a replica of the original barrel-vaulted roof. Further alterations in 2015-2018. The modern basement is excluded from the listing.
MATERIALS: constructed of wrought and cast iron and glass.
PLAN: now surviving as a rectangular building with an interior comprising a double-height central nave open to a glass barrel-vaulted roof with lean-to side aisles. A single-storey addition* has been added to the east front in 2015-2018 and a mezzanine gallery* to the aisles and west side of the hall.
EXTERIOR: the Floral Hall is orientated north-east to south-west (note: the following is simplified to the cardinal points for example, east front rather than south-east front) and raised above ground level on a modern plinth. It abuts three ranges of the Royal Opera House at the north, south and west, with the original theatre to the north, and has a main elevation facing Bow Street. The east façade is constructed of iron and glass in Italianate style and dominated by an enormous radial fanlight to the barrel-vaulted roof below which are six double-height bays. These bays are divided by projecting panelled pilasters with cast raised-ring decoration. They each have a round-headed arch with ornately-cast perforated spandrels beneath a frieze and moulded cornice. The four outer bays have lower square-headed glazed panels bordered by a band of raised-ring decoration. The two central bays and the centre of the fanlight are recessed with a gadrooned decorative band whilst the outer portion of the fanlight has sunburst glazing panels bordered by raised ring decoration. The whole of the elevation is surmounted by ornate iron cresting. In front of the ground floor is a single-storey glazed addition*, which provides access to the modern basement foyer, and is not of special interest.
INTERIOR: the interior comprises a broad nave, the width of the four central bays, flanked by side aisles and divided from them by four bay arcades of cast-iron columns. The arcade columns have elaborately moulded octagonal plinths, fluted pedestals, plain shafts and perforated Corinthian capitals. Each column base is cast with a maker’s mark: HENRY GRISSELL/ 1858/ REGENTS CANAL IRON WORKS/ LONDON. The columns themselves are hollow and originally designed to provide ventilation to the basement. Each column supports perforated brackets which are cast with Gothic rose and dagger tracery. These brackets form the arches of the arcade and aisles, as well as the supports to the curved iron ribs of the barrel-vaulted roof. The roof is a 1990s replica of the original and has I-section purlins and glazing bars. Beneath the lean-to aisle roofs are false ceilings* and air conditioning units*, probably added in around 2018. The 1990s glazed and steel-framed mezzanine galleries* occupy three sides of the hall and are approached by modern stairways*. In the centre and at the west end of the hall is a bar* and servery* added in around 2018. The 1990s west wall* has a full-height mirror* punctuated by a viewing window* from the amphitheatre bar of the adjacent range. On the south side of the building is a 1990s glazed addition* containing an escalator*. The modern basement is excluded from the listing.
EXCLUSIONS
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned structures and/or features are not of special architectural or historic interest (namely: the single-storey glazed addition added to the east front in 2015-2018; the false ceilings and air conditioning units to the lean-to aisle roofs; the 1990s glazed and steel-framed mezzanine galleries and modern stairways; the bar and servery; the 1990s west wall, including the full-height mirror and viewing window from the amphitheatre bar of the adjacent range; the 1990s glazed addition and escalator on the south side of the building). However, any works to these structures and/or features which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent (LBC) and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to determine.
The modern basement is excluded from the listing.
