Nos 59-171 and 64-184 Stamford Street

CHAPTER 2 - Nos. 59–171 and 64–184 Stamford Street, formerly Upper Stamford Street

The continuation of Stamford Street from Broadwall to Waterloo Road was laid across Prince's Meadows in 1815 in connection with the formation of the approaches to Waterloo Bridge (see Plate 3). This part of the street was known as Upper Stamford Street until 1868, when it was incorporated with Stamford Street, Southwark, and re-numbered. (fn. 1)

The earliest houses in Upper Stamford Street were on the north side at the Broadwall end (originally Nos. 1–7, afterwards 64–76). These houses were built by Thomas Lett, who held the main lease of Prince's Meadows. The 1823 ratebook (fn. 2) lists 7 tenants only, but by 1829 over 90 houses in the street were occupied. (fn. 3)

By the beginning of this century most of the houses were in a bad state. Some were drastically repaired and altered about 1910–12, but many were pulled down and replaced by large buildings. On the south side, between Waterloo and Cornwall Roads, W. H. Smith & Son erected a large printing works in 1914–16, designed by C. Stanley Peach. It was sold to the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph in 1939, but was not occupied by them owing to the outbreak of war, and since that time has been used for storage. (fn. 4) It was badly damaged by enemy action.

On the north side, the houses at the Waterloo Road corner were pulled down when the Royal Hospital for Children and Women was rebuilt in 1903–5, (fn. 5) and the Cornwal Road end of the terrace was removed soon after to provide a site for Cornwall House. The latter was built for H.M. Stationery Office, but being completed in the middle of the 1914–18 war was used for several years as an army hospital, known as King George's Hospital. Since 1920 it has been occupied as government offices. (fn. 6) Boots Chemists erected a large building at the east corner of Cornwall Road in 1936 (designed by Messrs. Henry Tanner), (fn. 7) and the block between Duchy Street and Broadwall is occupied by a large refrigerating plant erected in 1925–26. (fn. 7)

Nos. 59 and 61, The London School of Printing

The older part of this building (Plate 8, a and b) was erected about 1820 (fn. 8) to house the schools of the Benevolent Society of St. Patrick, a charit able organisation founded in 1784 with the object of “educating, clothing and apprenticing” poor children “born of Irish parents in or near London.” (fn. 9) The building, which was erected by J. & H. Lee to the design of James Mountague, (fn. 9) was intended to accommodate about 400 children. The schoolrooms were planned as wings each side of a centre block containing committee rooms and living quarters for the master and mistress.

The schools received royal patronage, and in 1821 £38 17s. was paid for the Royal Arms in Coade stone (fn. 9) which were erected over the porch and remained in position until 1921, when the property was bought by the London County Council for use as the Central Printing School, now called the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts. (fn. 7)

In 1908–9 an additional storey was built over each of the schoolroom wings to the design of C. Harrison Townsend. (fn. 7) Since 1921 considerable alterations and extensions have been made to the premises, including the building in 1930 of a wing to the Broadwall frontage which incorporated the site of No. 59 Stamford Street. The changes have involved the remodelling of the original interior.

Architectural Description

The whole building is in yellow stock brick and is three storeys high with a basement. The wings are slightly set back and their top storey is of mansard type with dormer window lighting.

The central part is three windows wide, the windows on each side of the entrance and on the second floor having gauged arches, slightly cambered on the undersides.

The first floor windows have stone architraves and reveals, and like the windows above, are linked by bands at cill level. The first floor cill band is stopped against the plain entablature of the porch to the main entrance. This porch is set forward slightly and has Greek Doric columns and antae at each side. The wall within the porch is stuccoed and the doorway has an architrave surround.

The parapet of the central part has a cornice and blocking course in stone. The blocking course is inflected upwards slightly at the centre and incised “DETUR DIGNIORI.”

The original ground storey wings have windows set in recess. These have semicircular heads and, like the other windows, have glazing bars to their double hung sashes. At each wing the first floor, which is a later addition, has two windows with gauged flat arches set slightly in recess. The windows are linked by a stone band beneath the cills. This storey has swept ends in stone and is surmounted by a stone cornice and plain parapet. The detail to the Duchy Street elevation is similar.

The first floor cill bands are incised “BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF ST. PATRICK INSTITUTED A.D. 1784,” but this lettering is now covered by wood fascias.

At the edge of the kerb in front of the main entrance are two cast-iron bollards. They are ribbed and have an Irish harp surmounted by a crown in relief on three faces. They are tapered, being square at the base and octagonal at the top.

Nos. 63–91 (odd) (formerly 102–116 Upper Stamford Street)

Nos. 63–91, which were built about 1829–30, (fn. 3) form a terrace in yellow stock brick with four storeys (except No. 89–three storeys) and a basement. Nos. 63, 89 and 91 alone retain much of their original appearance.

Nos. 65–87, which now make a uniform group within the terrace, were formerly individual houses but have been converted laterally into flats. Each flat is two houses in width and alternate entrances have been replaced by windows. The group has a rusticated ground storey with a continuous iron balcony at first floor level. At the centre Nos. 73–79 project forward slightly and have stucco quoins at the returns. At Nos. 75 and 77 the rusticated treatment of the ground storey is extended through the first floor to form a stylobate to the Corinthian colonnade above. The colonnade is the central feature of the group and extends through the second and third floors. The entablature above the colonnade also extends over Nos. 73 and 79. The entablature and blocking course are broken forward above the end and central pairs of columns. The central portion of the group, which rises slightly above the wings, is surmounted by vases at each end. All the upper windows, which originally had gauged flat arches, now have stucco architrave surrounds. The first floor windows to the wings are in pairs with alternate triangular and segmental pedimented heads. The wings have plain moulded cornices at the parapets and a main cornice at third floor level. Triple keystones above the second floor windows cut into the frieze under the main cornice.

All the entrances are round headed, some having frets to the surrounds and reveals, while others have Greek Doric columns at each side.

The conversion of the houses into flats and the major alterations, including the erection of the Corinthian colonnade at the centre of the group, were executed to the design of John Coleridge about 1912. (fn. 7)

No. 63 has double-hung sashes with gauged flat arches to the windows above the ground floor shop. The shop-front, an alteration in Victorian times, has a fascia and cornice at first floor level carried on fluted columns with foliated caps. Bands at second and third floor levels are returned on the blank elevation to Duchy Street.

No. 89, though of one storey less, is uniform in height with the rest of the terrace. It has semicircular heads to the windows at the ground floor and to the entrance, which has fluted surrounds and reveals. The upper windows have gauged flat arches, those to the first floor being in roundheaded recesses linked by moulded impost bands. A coarsely detailed Victorian balcony extends across the front at first floor level slightly above the neighbouring balconies.

No. 91 has a shop with display windows flanked by pilasters on the main elevation and on the return to Coin Street. The ground storey is rusticated except at the side entrance. The upper windows on both elevations have gauged flat arches and an original iron balcony extends across the front at first floor level. The entrance in Coin Street is round headed and similar in detail to that at No. 89.

Nos. 93–123 (odd) (formerly 101–86 Upper Stamford Street)

Nos 95–123 form a similar terrace to Nos. 65–87, pairs of houses having been converted laterally into flats by John Coleridge at about the same time. There is a similar central feature with Corinthian pilasters through the upper two floors supporting an entablature and balustraded parapet. The parapet sets up a little above the skyline of the rest of the terrace, and has vases over the returns and over the end pilasters. There are also slight breaks forward which relieve the flanks at each side of the centre portion. At each of these breaks there are also vases above the parapets.

Above all the first floor windows are triangular and segmental pediments except at Nos. 95 and 97, which have plain stucco keys and architrave surrounds. A continuous balcony links the terrace at first floor level but does not extend over No. 123, which has a ground floor shop.

No. 93, on the corner of Coin Street, was a public house (the Manor House). It was of similar character to the rest of the terrace but formed no part of the group. It was demolished at the end of 1933. (fn. 7)

These houses were finished and occupied by 1829. In 1840 Nos. 111 to 123 (formerly 86 to 92 Upper Stamford Street) were owned by John and Silas Galsworthy, grandfather and great-uncle respectively of John Galsworthy, novelist. Both of them had been resident in the street since 1829, John in 1829–30 at No. 154 (formerly 54) on the north side of the street, and in 1840 at No. 121 (formerly 87) and Silas at No. 121 in 1829–30 and at No. 111 (formerly 92) in 1840–50. (fn. 3) Silas Galsworthy had been in business as a builder in London for some time when his brother John came to join him about 1830 (fn. 10) and it seems fairly certain that they were responsible for the erection of Nos. 111–123. Both were prototypes of characters in the Forsyte Saga.

The Rev. J. Aitken Johnston, curate of St. John's, Waterloo Road in 1845–8 and vicar in 1848–71 was living at No. 103 in 1845.

David Laing, architect (see p. 27) was at No. 105 in 1829–35.

Nos. 78–106 (even) (formerly 8–22 Upper Stamford Street)

The whole of the terrace Nos. 78–106, which was built in 1829–30, was demolished during the recent war with the exception of the basement, ground and part of the first floor of No. 106. This building has a porch entrance, supported by two light columns, on the return elevation to Coin Street. The doorway has fluted quadrant reveals and a semicircular headed fanlight. There is a fig tree growing in the area, the only tree in Stamford Street. The terrace is illustrated on Plate 10 b.

Charles Hollis, architect, lived at No. 10 (afterwards 82) in 1825–1828.

Nos. 108–138 (even) (formerly 23–38 Upper Stamford Street)

Of the long terrace Nos. 108–138, erected circa 1829, only Nos. 108–116 now remain. These are plain in detail with four storeys and base ment below the parapets. They are in yellow stock brick and of two windows in width. There are gauged flat arches to all the windows; these are recessed and most possess glazing bars. Nos. no,110, 112, and 116 have original cast-iron balconies linking the first floor windows. Nos. 108 and 114 have parts of their balconies made into first floor window guards. All, excepting No. 108, have round headed entrances with reeded door surrounds. No. 108 has a porch entrance in Coin Street, with a lunette over the doorway which is flanked by wing lights.

The Church of St. Andrew, Coin Street

During the 1840s population swarmed into the network of mean streets and houses north and south of Upper Stamford Street and in 1846, in accordance with Peel's Act “to make better Provision for the Spiritual Care of populous Parishes,” (fn. 11) Prince's Town or Meadows was formed into a new church district by Order in Council. (fn. 12) It had no permanent church for 10 years, (fn. 12) but in 1854 the Commissioners for Building New Churches, having failed in their attempts to purchase ground from the Duchy of Corn wall, bought a plot between Prince's Street (now Coin Street) and Cornwall Road from Richard Palmer Roupell. (fn. 12) This ground had formerly been part of Curtis's Botanical Garden (see p. 16). The Church of St. Andrew's was designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon in a style described at the time as “Geometric Decorated.” It seated nearly 800 people and cost just over £ 10,000. One item in the bill was for extra digging and driving piles “consequent upon the tides.” The church was consecrated in June, 1856. In 1874 the vicar, the Rev. Frederick Tugwell, bought additional land and rebuilt one of the aisles, inserting five windows in what had previously been a blank wall. (fn. 12)

During the war of 1939–45 St. Andrew's was so badly damaged as to be rendered unusable, though most of its fabric still remains (Plate 9).

List of Incumbents and Vicars. 1846, Agmond C. Carr; 1850, Alfred S. Canney; 1858, Lewen Tugwell; 1865, Frederic Tugwell; 1883, Trevor Fielder; 1892, George Edward Asker; 1900, George R. Lees; 1915, Thomas Walton; 1926, Wilfrid G. B. Middleton; 1938, Arthur W. Burfield; 1949, Eric W. A. Dean.

Architectural Description

St. Andrew's Church, which is orientated approximately north and south, has at its north-east corner a bold tower and spire. The spire, which is octagonal, is slated and rises from the four gables over the belfry stage of the tower. The church is built in stock brick close banded with rough-dressed stone coursing. It has a clerestoried nave with aisles at each side. The light-coloured brickwork of the interior is relieved with red bricks in regular courses and in geometrical patterns. With the gabled end wall of the nave, the spire and tower close the vista at the southern end of Coin Street. The church shows strongly that Continental influence common in much of Teulon's work.