Description

TQ2887SW
798-1/5/1456

CAMDEN
SOUTH GROVE (South side)
No.11 Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute and attached railings and gate

14/05/74

GV
II
Detached house, now library and educational institute. Mid C19 and c1880 remodelling by R Parkinson of an earlier house. Stuccoed brick with hipped Welsh slate roof; rendered brick return with tall chimney-stack.

EXTERIOR: two storeys three windows. Architraved sashes, ground floor with cornices. First floor sill band with brackets. Entablature with blocking course and shallow pediment dated 1839. Entrance formed by a gabled red brick and terracotta portico extension with semicircular arched doorway with mask keystone, impost bands, fanlight and double panelled doors; lantern above. Geometric-style three-light window to left end gable of library, which has buttressed rear wall.

INTERIOR: large ground floor room has early C19 thin-beamed coffered ceiling with Gothick-style carving to corner cupboard. To rear of this room is the lecture room of 1880 with openwork spandrels to four-bay arch-braced roof. Library to rear of lecture room was converted from former lecture room in 1880 and has a royal coat-of-arms presented in 1837 by Queen Victoria to a local innkeeper. C18 pegged queen-post roof to front range; the cellar has colourwashed late C17/C18 brickwork.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron gate and railings of geometric pattern on a low wall.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the Institute is a rare survival of one of many such establishments which flourished in the C19. It was founded in 1839 "for the purpose of forming an institution designed to excite and cultivate an intelligent interest in the objects of literature and science", although it did not include "mechanics and labourers" amongst its membership until 1848. The present building, used as a school for Jewish boys in the early C19, was taken over in 1840.

Listing NGR: TQ2842287325

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086224

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.

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