WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE

WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE, RENFREW ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1392739
Date first listed:: 04-Sep-2008
List Entry Name:: WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE
Statutory Address:: WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE, RENFREW ROAD

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1392739
Date first listed:: 04-Sep-2008
List Entry Name:: WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE
Statutory Address 1:: WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE, RENFREW ROAD

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:: WATER TOWER TO FORMER LAMBETH WORKHOUSE, RENFREW ROAD

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Lambeth (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 31673 78779

Reasons for Designation

The water tower to the former Lambeth Workhouse and Infirmary is designated for the following principal reasons: * of special architectural interest as an imposing and distinctive water tower in the Venetian Gothic style, constituting a rare feature in inner London; * historic associations with Lambeth Workhouse and Infirmary; * group value with the former workhouse administrative block, whose style it complements, and with the nearby former courthouse and fire station in Renfrew Road (qv); a good ensemble of Victorian public buildings.

Details

963/0/10180 RENFREW ROAD 04-SEP-08 Water Tower to former Lambeth Workhouse

II Water tower. Built 1877 to the design of Fowler and Hill, as part of Lambeth Workhouse and Infirmary, latterly Lambeth Hospital.

MATERIALS: Yellow stock brick with red brick dressings and banding; Portland stone dressings; clay tile roof.

EXTERIOR: Monumental structure in a striking Venetian Gothic style. Rectangular on plan. 3 stages of equal height and tall fourth stage with corbelled cornice, plain top stage. Diagonal buttressess with pointed stone heads. Lower 4 stages have narrow rectangular openings with stone lintels and cills, framed in giant arcades (triple on the N and S sides; double on the E and W) with moulded stone imposts continuing around buttress heads, pointed gauged-brick heads and oculi, and brick drip-moulds. Similar openings to otherwise plain top storey. The large iron water tank is covered by a hipped tiled roof with a gablet.

HISTORY: The provision of separate workhouse infirmaries was a key requirement of the Metropolitan Poor Act (1867) following the outcry at workhouse conditions in the mid 1860s, which prompted the rebuilding of several London workhouses, and a proliferation of new workhouse infirmaries. Lambeth Workhouse was rebuilt 1871-3 in Renfrew Road to the design of R Parris and TW Aldwinckle, housing 820 inmates. The new pavilion-plan infirmary was built on the adjacent site to the north west of the workhouse, and completed in 1877. Casual wards were added in 1877 at the south of the infirmary, and a water tower at the north-east of the former workhouse administration block. The water tower served both workhouse and infirmary. The remainder of the infirmary buildings, and most of the workhouse blocks, have been demolished.

Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries of this period were often architecturally very plain compared to other hospitals, but this water tower is imposing by most standards, probably a deliberate response to the particularly ornate Venetian Gothic style of the former workhouse administrative block.

SOURCES: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), unpublished report on Lambeth Workhouse NMR 101038 (1996) RCHME, English Hospitals 1660-1948 (1998)

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: The water tower of the former Lambeth Workhouse and Infirmary is designated for the following principal reasons: * of special architectural interest as an imposing and distinctive water tower in the Venetian Gothic style, constituting a rare feature in inner London; * historic associations with Lambeth Workhouse and Infirmary; * group value with the former workhouse administrative block, whose style it complements, and with the nearby former courthouse and fire station in Renfrew Road (qv); a good ensemble of Victorian public buildings.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 505263
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Richardson, Harriet (editor), English Hospitals 1660-1948: A Survey of their Architecture and Design, (1998)

Legal

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