Former Great Eastern Hotel, City of London, London

Summary

A station hotel, built in 1883-1884 and designed by Charles Barry Junior and his son and partner Charles Edward Barry and extended in 1901 to the designs of Colonel RW Edis and Maples, with later alterations by Manser Associates and Conran Design completed in 2000.

Description

MATERIALS AND PLAN: red Essex brick with Portland and Corsehill stone dressings laid over a structural frame of traditional masonry, wrought iron, rivetted steel and re-enforced concrete. The covering of the mansard roof is partially of copper sheets cut to diamond shapes. The building is five storeys in height with three attic and two basement storeys.

EXTERIOR: the building is designed in a Renaissance style, drawing on a number of north-European sources. Floor levels are indicated by projecting bands and a cornice above the second floor. A balustrade at the top of the walling runs between gabled attic dormers.

The lengthy south front facing Liverpool Street is expressive of the different functions of the building as it was originally planned by the Barrys' to serve as an hotel, to the west, and a block of restaurants to the east. The appearance of the lower floors is largely original, with some alteration to the ground floor of the hotel block when that was changed from a row of shop fronts to an extension of the central coffee room of the hotel. At the same time an extra floor was added by Edis above the 'restaurant block' to provide further bedrooms. The roof of the whole building was raised in the 1990s and a further three floors were built above the parapet and behind the lowest gabled dormers and grouped under a sloping mansard roof covered in metal tiles.

To the left of centre is a portal which originally gave access to a cab entrance, leading down to the station platforms. This has been retained although it no longer serves its original function and is currently a loading bay for the hotel. It provides the central emphasis of the façade and has a wide basket archway at ground level with a moulded surround and projecting quoins. Above this at first, second and third floor levels are mullioned and transomed windows of five lights flanked by paired pilasters. Above the balustrade is a dormer with a wide, arched balcony opening and five-light mullioned window. Behind this a steep roof with small gabled dormers rises to a platform with an octagonal turret of two tiers and an ogee dome.

At left of this central feature is the original hotel block, designed by the Barrys'. It has nine bays, near-symmetrically disposed. The ground floor has walling of Portland stone and above this is red brickwork laid in Flemish bond. The corner bays have projecting bands and upper windows across the first to the third floors are arranged in an alternating rhythm of recessed, two-light windows and projecting three-light windows with mullions and transoms. The three-light windows have sandstone surrounds and segmental pediments and aprons at first floor level.

To the right of the portal is the dining block of the Barry design. The ground floor here has retained its run of shops. Above are four floors, crowned by the attic dormers, as opposed to the three floors above the hotel block. The dining block projects in front of the hotel block and the corner which this projection creates is angled with a frontage of a further two bays. Windows are of four lights with mullions and transom to the first and second floors and three lights above that. Second floor windows differ from those on the hotel block by having projecting, segmental, relieving arches of Portland stone.

To far right is a corner pavilion of four taller bays which match the floor heights of the hotel block. This has arched openings to the lower storeys, brackets below the balustrade and a dormer with pilasters flanked by scroll brackets and round-arched cap. The corner bay at right is slightly recessed and has a doorway with stepped relieving arch and a first-floor balcony.

The eastern frontage to Bishopsgate is of two principal dates. The portion of four bays at left was originally the termination of the Barrys’ restaurant block completed in the 1884. It has stone walling to the ground floor with deep brackets dividing the bays and supporting first-floor balconies. Above, windows have arched openings and the gable has a stepped outline with square turrets to either side. Both turrets and the gable are capped by ogee domes with spike finials. To the right of this wing was added the nine-bay extension of 1901 designed by Edis and Maples. The three right-hand projecting gabled bays of this addition respect the earlier work even though they do not exactly match it. Both have square corner turrets and stepped gables with finials to the top and sides. Windows have round-arched heads to the first and second floors and segment arches to the ground floor. Between the gabled wings are seven closely-spaced bays with a central group of three bays which form a frontispiece. This has a doorway to the ground floor, flanked by Tuscan columns, rusticated pilasters above, and a shaped gable to the top. At far right the bay has a doorway with arched windows above.

The northern side of the hotel, facing the station, is plainer than the south or eastern fronts and has round-arched openings to the ground floor lighting the Hamilton Hall with square-headed windows to the storeys above and shaped gables to the attic dormers. At left is an oriel window which faces north along Bishopsgate and extends from the first to the third floors. The first floor windows here and along part of the eastern, Bishopsgate front were blocked in 1912 when the interior was adapted to include the 'Grecian' Masonic Temple, designed by Brown and Barrow.

Further to the west and inside the station shed the front continues with the northern portal of the cab ramp which has a cambered head and projecting stone surround with quoins, as on the south front. Above is a five-light window with stone surround and scroll brackets to the sides. To the left of this is a doorway and above it are a series of three panels of carved brick which were reset here. They are in a moulded surround and show, in ascending order, a steam locomotive exiting a tunnel, a steam ship flanked by dolphins and a cherub stoking a boiler. This last was one of a series of cherub figures shown undertaken railway tasks which formerly decorated the eastern station extension by Ashbee and it was placed here during the period that the station and the hotel were remodelled at the turn of the C21. To right of the former cab portal and online with one of the principal train shed roofs is a symmetrical façade of seven bays gathered under a segmental pediment and dentilled cornice. This has a series of doorways at first floor level leading from the aerial walkway and giving access to the hotel. These were originally window surrounds but have had their sills lowered. The original form of the windows is indicated by their upper rank of lights which now form fanlights. A five-light central opening is flanked by pairs of three-light openings. In the wide, arched pediment a central five-light window is set in a semi-circular relieving arch with three-light windows at either side, all with pediment heads. At concourse level the original arrangement of openings has been replaced by shop fronts.

The western flank of the building is partially covered by the four-bay structure designed in around 1997 as a loose imitation of the design of the original office building, designed by Edward Wilson and opened in 1876, which does not form part of this item and is described in the List entry for Liverpool Street Station.

INTERIOR:
The interior represents several stages of development of the hotel including the first phase by Charles Barry jnr. and Charles Edward Barry, the additions made by Colonel Edis and Maples and the work of Manser and Conran completed in 2000.

The Hotel block of 1884 by the Barrys has, at the centre of the ground floor, the original Coffee Room which has since served as a restaurant and ball room but which retains the majority of its original appearance and configuration. It is a square room with four square columns defining the central space which has a glazed dome with panels of stained and moulded glass showing swags and flowers. Further rectangular skylight panels are to the east and west. Ionic pilasters are attached to the central columns and define the panelled bays along the walls. The room was recorded as having red scagliola pilasters which probably survive beneath later overpainting.

The original entrance lobby, which is now a small bar, has panelled walls with arched heads and strapwork to the spandrels with the entwined initials ‘GER’. Above is a dentilled frieze and vaulted ceiling. The floor is terrazzo and mosaic panels with Greek key patterning to the border.

The main staircase in this western block has an open well and an elaborate balustrade of wrought and cast iron scrolls and tendrils with a hardwood handrail. Walls are panelled and ceilings beneath the flights of stairs have strapwork decoration. The topmost ceiling has grilles and pendant bosses to the corners and centre. The staircase is lit by windows facing into the central lightwell and includes a row of six circular windows. Screens of columns divide the staircase landings from the bedroom corridors and have arcades of round arches and prominent quoins which also appear in the corridors.

Also by the Barrys is the Fenchurch Room at first floor level above the former cab entrance portal. This has a tripartite plan, with a square central space and lateral ante rooms divided by pairs of Ionic columns against the walls supporting transverse beams with cornices. The walls have a series of arched panels and the ceilings have grilles and pendant bosses. The Middlesex Room at first floor level at the southeast corner of the building has wood panelling below the dado with bolection mouldings to the panels. The panelled ceiling has strapwork decoration and guilloche to the underside of the beams with pendant bosses which carry electroliers that appear to be original fittings of a late-C19 or early-C20 date.

The other interior work which may be in part due to the Barrys is the masonic temple at upper basement level. A room by this name is identified on early plans prior to the involvement of Edis and Maples. The room now has Egyptian decoration including door surrounds, ceiling decoration and some cornicing. Photographs show a more elaborate interior and it may be that this fuller scheme has been covered with plain panels to accommodate the present use as a hotel gymnasium. It is possible that the Egyptian appearance was due to the Barrys or more likely the result of a reworking of the interior by Edis and Maples.

Other notable interiors at ground and first floor levels are largely the work of the combination of Colonel Edis and Maples and Co. who redesigned the bedrooms in the hotel block and some of the early Barry interiors in the restaurant block. The remodelled rooms include the Lady Abercorn’s Bar which is decorated in what the Building News called a ‘late Elizabethan style’. It has a richly-patterned and gilded, coved and panelled ceiling divided into nine compartments by cross beams with pendants at the junctions. The walls are divided into bays by fluted Ionic pilasters of wood. Lower walls are panelled and the upper walls have a series of cartouches around circular coats of arms and a richly decorated frame above the bar back with bows and swags surrounding a canvas showing a view along Bishopsgate in the C17, including Sir Peter Pindar's house which stood close to the site of the hotel. The bar front and counter date from 1999.

The eastern staircase, by Edis and Maples, is of figured marble with marble treads and vase-shaped balusters. At its base is a screen of paired Tuscan columns. The dado panelling is clad in marble, as are the arched entrances to bedroom corridors at ascending levels.

The Hamilton Hall was the largest function room of the hotel and has a sumptuous C18 French aesthetic based on that of the Hotel de Soubise in Paris. It has Rococo plasterwork, entwined figures in relief and panels painted on canvas as overdoors after Boucher and Trémolièrs. Mirrors echo the windows along the side walls. Adjoining is the Hamilton anteroom which is divided into two by fluted Ionic columns and has grisaille panels to the walls.

Other rooms by the Edis and Maples partnership include the Middlesex ante room and the Lincolnshire Room which share panelled walls and C18-style door and fire surrounds.

The Cambridge and Essex rooms at basement level formed part of the additions by Edis and Maples and are now retail outlets approached from the station concourse. The Cambridge room which was originally a dining room and labelled on early plans by Edis as the ‘Clerks Dining Room’ retains its plan and has a French C18 aesthetic, divided into two by paired pilasters supporting cross-axial entablatures to either side. The ceiling has plaster garlands in relief and the walls have their moulded doorcases and doors and mirrored panels with surrounds. The Essex room has an C18 English appearance with wood panelled walls to full height and Ionic pilasters with cornice, and beamed ceiling. The fireplace on the western wall has a Bolection moulded marble fire surround and the overmantel has carved wooden swags and fruit.

The Greek masonic temple at first floor level was designed in 1912 by Brown and Barrow and is sumptuous in its decoration, employing motifs from ancient Greece. It has a chequered, black and white marble floor. Walls are clad with red and cream marble veneer and have a series of square niches flanked by Ionic columns. Wooden benches line the lower walls and there are thrones with aedicular surrounds to the centre of both southern and northern ends. An organ at the north end is partly screened by further Ionic columns. The coffered ceiling has a circular panel to its centre with a sunburst in relief surrounded by signs of the zodiac. The room is entered from its south-western corner by a curved flight of marble stairs which lead down from a lobby which has a bronze bust of the Duke of Connaught, the Grand Master at the time that the temple was built. Columns supporting globes flank the temple door. The ante room beyond, which was reordered by Manser, has panelled walls and fire surround and the double doors to the temple room have rich panelled decoration with ebony discs and lion masks.

The remodelling of the hotel in the 1999-2000 by Manser and Conran caused the loss of the Norfolk and Suffolk rooms designed by Edis and Maples. This space and the amalgamation of two internal lightwells allowed the creation of a new entrance lobby and atrium. Bedrooms look down through square or circular windows into the atrium, which also holds a bank of three lifts housed in an oval structure covered with wire mesh. A circular light well placed in the centre of each of the bedroom landings allows further light to enter the building from above. Bedrooms housed in the attic stories have circular windows placed in the roof slopes looking out across the City.

History

The site on which the hotel was built and the station tracks were laid was originally part of the location of the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem. It was positioned just outside the medieval city walls of London and an entrance to the city, Bishopsgate, stood to the south of the site of the hotel building. By the C14 the priory specialised in the treatment of the mentally ill and eventually removed to Moorfields. Subsequent development of the area included suburban housing, followed by industrial use and subdivision of the individual plots by lanes and alleys. Liverpool Street, named after the Prime Minister, was formed in 1829. The area had become slum housing by the mid C19 and during the 1860s and 1870s the site was cleared to make way for two railway termini; first Broad Street for the North London Railway Company which opened in 1866 and then Liverpool Street for the Great Eastern Railway (GER) which built train sheds and offices as land became available. The train sheds were designd by Edward Wilson, who also designed the range of offices in a Gothic revival style, grouped along the western side of the station and opened in 1875. The offices have since been demolished. Expansion of the station included the eastern train shed, designed by William Ashbee, which opened in 1894. This too has now been largely demolished. Lines from the station ran to suburbs in Essex and also included main line routes to East Anglia, including Norwich and the coast at Great Yarmouth.

Acquisition of all of the land needed to build the station took ten years and proved to be expensive and so the building of an hotel was delayed. In 1875 an entrepreneur called Henry Heath approached the board and offered to lease the hotel site and operate it himself and this prompted the board to ask Wilson to prepare a design. He duly submitted plans which were drawn up with the company's land agent, John Dobbin. However, Wilson died in 1877 and the board decided instead to look elsewhere and in December 1879 they appointed the father and son partnership of Charles Barry junior and Charles Edward Barry.

The present station hotel was built in two phases, the first of which opened in 1884 and the second in 1901. Documents appear to show that the bulk of the design work for the initial building was undertaken by Charles Edward Barry, who was in his early twenties at the time. The founder of the Barry dynasty which contained several members called Charles was Sir Charles Barry, the architect of many prominent Victorian buildings including rebuilding much of the Houses of Parliament in association with AWN Pugin. Charles Barry Junior was his eldest son and became the architect and surveyor to Dulwich College and was responsible for the school's new buildings in south London (Grade II*) and for the forecourt buildings in Burlington House, Piccadilly, including the Royal Academy and the Learned Societies (Grade II*). His own son, Charles Edward, was trained by his father and inherited his role as architect at Dulwich College. He later worked in America and was consulting architect to the British embassy there. The name of Barry implied qualities of competence and prestige which would not have been lost on the directors of the railway and another member of the family, Edward M Barry, had already built the station hotels at Charing Cross and Cannon Street.

The external treatment of this first hotel building was stylistically uniform in a loosely Flemish Renaissance style, but the internal plan was divided at ground-floor level by a cab driveway which cut upwards to street level from the sunken arrival platforms of the station. This division was used to create two distinct functions in the plan. The portion to the west of the driveway was known as the hotel block and housed a series of reception rooms at ground level clustered around a large, coffee room with a glass dome. Further reception rooms were grouped at first-floor level and above these were 160 bedrooms. Part of the basement of the hotel block was taken up with railway tracks which originally stretched beneath the building. To the east of the divide was a series of dining rooms intended for the use of non-residents, including a buffet, grill room and formal dining room. This part, known as the restaurant block, was changed in 1901 as part of the work to extend the hotel.

The decision to extend was made in 1899 and Maples, the furnishing company, was approached. They had established an allied company, Frederick Hotels, which undertook the architectural design of the additions with Colonel RW Edis. Maples then fitted out the interiors. Colonel Edis, whose rank sprang from his service in the Artists' Rifles of which he became the commanding officer, had undertaken work for the royal family at Sandringham, including the new ballroom and restoration and additions to the house after a fire in 1891. The same partnership of Edis and Maples' had recently completed the Great Central Hotel at Marylebone, making them an obvious choice for the work at Liverpool Street. As part of Edis' extension to the Great Eastern Hotel there was also some remodelling of the Barrys’ original Hotel block, including the bedrooms, and also above the eastern restaurant block to which was added another floor of bedrooms. The central coffee room was extended to take in an area which had formerly been retail space along Liverpool Street, thus enlarging the domed coffee room which eventually became the hotel dining room. The street frontage to Liverpool Street was consequently altered at ground floor level and the hotel entrance was also widened. The Barrys’ eclectic Flemish Renaissance style was continued externally by Edis, although differences can be seen in the red bricks and stone dressings used. The interiors included reading, writing and smoking rooms, bars, a barber's and billiard rooms and used an eclectic range of different styles including Neo-Georgian and Baroque. The suite of new reception rooms was called the Abercorn Rooms and contemporary reviewers praised their sumptuous decoration and suitability for the varied needs of workers in the City of London, effectively providing the facilities of a club house. The largest dining and function room called the Hamilton Hall was decorated in a French C18 style based on the Hotel Soubise in Paris. As part of the extension and remodelling, some rooms in the earlier part of the building were recast by Maples, including the former buffet room (now the Lady Abercorn Bar) which was transformed with lavish decoration in what was called a ‘late Elizabethan’ style by Building News (see SOURCES). Plans show that there had been an earlier room marked as a masonic temple in the Barrys’ building, but this was replaced by one decorated in an ancient Egyptian style at basement level by Edis and Maples and later supplemented in 1912 with a further masonic temple room in a lavish 'Grecian' style designed by Brown and Barrow in a space that had formerly been a smoking room designed by Edis at the north-eastern corner of the first floor. The remodelling by Edis and Maples resulted in a hotel which was reported to have 300 rooms. In addition to the reception and bedrooms the building had extensive catering facilities including the kitchens for the hotel, which were placed on the fourth floor, and further large storage rooms and kitchens at basement level beneath the Abercorn Rooms and the Restaurant block which supplied food for trains and stations along the various lines which ran out from Liverpool Street.

In the 1970s a scheme for large-scale redevelopment to the east and west of the station was planned by Fitroy Robinson and Partners but was not progressed. In the 1980s the station was overhauled in a style which was broadly sympathetic to the original design, but which also aimed at solving some of the problems of circulation and functioning caused by the ad hoc way in which the C19 station had developed. As part of this remodelling the whole range of station office buildings, designed by Edward Wilson in the 1870s, which ran along the western side of the station and which also turned the corner into Liverpool Street, was demolished. A simulacrum of a portion of the original was built at the south-western corner of the site abutting the western end of the south front of the hotel. At the same time the eastern train shed, opened in 1894 and housing platforms 11 to 18, was also demolished and new offices and retail which formed phases 6 and 7 of the Broadgate development were built on the site, with railway lines beneath. The space formerly occupied by Wilson's station office building and its forecourt were enclosed beneath an extended station roof which closely follows the pattern of the original western train shed standing to the north. A generous concourse was created at the sunken platform level with elevated walkways at street level above, which provide two levels for retail outlets. Following these alterations to the station it was anticipated that the hotel would benefit from increased business, but this did not happen to the expected degree. An appraisal of the efficiency and functioning of the building was undertaken by Wyndham International which bought the hotel from British Rail. This identified various problems including the lack of a clearly signposted entrance to the hotel; the fact that many of the bedrooms looked onto noisy, crowded streets or into lightwells; the positioning of the kitchens and the lack of clearly understandable circulation routes. Some of this was due to the historic layout and the presence of the cab tunnel which divided the building at its ground level. The new owners employed Manser Associates as their architects and Conran Design to update the interior whilst retaining and restoring selected parts of the historic fabric. Transformation work was complete by 2000. The original mansard was replaced by three bedroom floors with a curved outline to the roof which increased the number of bedrooms to 267 and gave better views. A new route allowing circulation in a figure-of-eight pattern revolved around a large central atrium, into which some of the bedrooms looked. This was partially formed from the space previously occupied by two lightwells and included lifts rising to the full height of the extended building. A series of circular landings in the bedroom corridors combined to also provide a new lightwell cut through the original Edis building. At the same time period interiors were restored and repurposed, although loss of original fabric included the Norfolk and Suffolk Rooms, which were parts of the Edis interiors. These were replaced by a new reception area. A Conran suite including sitting room, bedroom, bathroom and dressing room was designed by Sir Terence Conran, who had taken shares in the hotel, and this survives. In 2006 the hotel was sold to Hyatt and renamed the Andaz.

At the time of the site (August 2022) further change to the hotel and station is under discussion.

Reasons for Listing

The former Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street, City of London, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building, designed by the noted architects Charles Barry Junior and Charles Edward Barry and extended by Colonel Edis and Maples with later additions by Manser and Conran, has an architecturally accomplished exterior which acts as a frontispiece to Liverpool Street Station. The interior contains a series of lavish C19 reception rooms in a variety of styles which show high quality in their design and detailing and retain the great majority of their original appearance.

Historic interest:

* located in the City of London, the building contains a series of function rooms in a range of styles which were designed to cater to hotel guests and the wider working population of the City and are expressive of social activity in the later-C19 and the status of terminus hotels.

Group value:

* with Liverpool Street Station, with which it has a strong historical and functional relationship.

External Links

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