Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3182NW LLOYD BAKER STREET
635-1/68/986 YWCA Alexandra House and attached
railings

GV II

Former House of Retreat of the Sisters of Bethany (convent and
school). 1882-4, Ernest Newton, with some later alterations.
Yellow brick in Flemish bond with dressings of red brick and
gauged red rubbd brick. Four and five storeys over
half-basement. Irregular and picturesque elevations in the
'Queen Anne' style with gables, high chimneys with moulded
tops, swept parapets, stringcourses, pilasters, blank arches
and segmentally headed windows with wide sash boxes in the
'Queen Anne' style. Slated roofs, some within a curbed
mansard. Iron area railings towards Lloyd Square.
The Lloyd Baker Street elevation (1882) has three main storeys
in the centre, with steps up to a round-arched entrance
containing double doors partly panelled and partly now glazed,
all within an outer arch with hood mould and keystones. Above,
two giant stacks rise from corbels at first-floor level, break
through the cornice and are linked by an open arch. Higher
flanks, rising to two small segment-headed gables on the right
(altered from original form) and swept parapets and a further
high chimney on the left. At the far right end of the front, a
small addition of c.1905 with two main storeys in a Tudor
style, of red brick with stone dressings, leaded windows and a
straight gable with stone finial.
The longer Lloyd Square front (east portion 1882, west portion
1884), is of three main storeys above ground, with shaped
gables and one chimney breaking through the line of the swept
parapet. Tops of gables slightly altered after war damage. A
moulded stringcourse runs along the eastern portion of the
front above first-floor level; in the western portion, which
has a simple arched entrance, the first-floor windows have
projecting segmental heads. One ground-storey window is within
a broad segmental arch with hood mould and keystone.
The interior retains a single-storey, flat-roofed cloister
with a corridor along its north and west sides, with panelled
Gothic door to former chapel in north-west position. Along the
corridor, buttressed brick piers alternate with segment-headed
arches filled mainly with three light wooden windows. Original
rear brick elevations largely intact. On the upper storeys
north of the cloister, a neo-Georgian extension in brick of
c.1935.
See also Studio (Former Chapel), Lloyd Baker Street.

Listing NGR: TQ3112782809

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27083713

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)