St Michael's House, 2 Elizabeth Street, City of Westminster, London

Summary

Parish community centre or clubhouse, 1938 by N F Cachemaille-Day, now offices.

Description

Parish community centre or clubhouse, 1938 by N F Cachemaille-Day, now offices.

MATERIALS: steel frame, clad in plum coloured Dutch brick, laid in Flemish bond; concrete (painted white) and engineering brick dressings; metal-framed windows, flat roofs.

PLAN: the building occupies a tight corner site, the front elevation facing south onto Elizabeth Street and a prominent side elevation facing Eccleston Place. The main body of the building is rectangular on plan; the front section is of five storeys, with a stair tower protruding above it, with a two-storey lower wing to the rear and a basement beneath the whole building. To the rear, with its main, side elevation on Eccleston Place and reached from the principal staircase at half landing level, is a tall, narrow, apsidal ended chapel. Accommodation, arranged over the five levels, is served by two adjacent staircases, lit by windows which are made a feature of the east elevation. From the entrance hall stairs descend to the former gymnasium and changing rooms at basement level.

EXTERIOR: the front elevation is symmetrical in five bays and on five storeys, the fenestration set in from the outer corners of the building, creating a blank panel to each side. The entrance is set forward in a moulded masonry architrave with rounded flanks and a flat canopy with a stepped fascia. Set back above the doors is a blind 'overlight' panel. Below is a pair of doors, each of four moulded panels, set back further within the entrance. It is approached by a pair of deep concrete steps with a threshold laid out in a concrete grid inset with glass setts and is flanked by curved, brick parapet walls forming a quadrant on each side.

Windows, which are paired metal casements of three lights arranged vertically either side of a cylindrical mullion, painted white, are in deep-set openings with quadrant cut engineering brick reveals and slender concrete cills and lintels, also painted white. Above the fourth floor is a simple cornice which extends slightly beyond the window openings. Attic storey windows above it are metal casements beneath a continuous lintel. A plain parapet above has concrete coping. Foundation stones set into the brick fabric record: N F Cachemaille-Day / F.R.I.B.A. / Architect and C.H.Gibson Ltd. / CROYDON / Contractors.

The dramatic side elevation to Eccleston Place is achieved by the vertical accent provided by the parallel stair windows in the front block and the height of its stair tower, and the almost austere minimal treatment given to the chapel.

The stair windows read as single glazed strips, made up of smaller metal-framed panes. Each has paired lights in slightly chamfered architraves between a central brick pier, and is deep set in engineering brick reveals, with a slender cill and lintel, painted white. Below each is a deep-set horizontal tripartite window opening with a slender cill lintel and mullions, that provides clerestorey glazing to the basement room. Centrally placed above the stair windows is a gargoyle-like projecting moulded base and smaller head at the respective roof levels that appears to be the mounting for a statue. To the left is a stepped, moulded doorcase with a pair of deep-set part glazed doors.

The chapel has a stark simplicity. It has a flush surface apart from three very narrow lancet windows set precisely within the outer wall and ranks of narrow slit openings which pierce the parapet. The lancets have rounded heads and projecting painted concrete cills, and windows have robust rectangular leaded lights with a top-hung hopper. The roof is hidden behind a tall parapet pierced by square headed openings and has a concrete coping. The corresponding piers of the western wall rise to the same height above the flat roof. A connecting lintel appears to have been removed.

Beyond the chapel is a rear entrance in a deep, stepped moulded architrave; it has replaced doors.

The west elevation is blind save for a single six-light ground floor window in a plain reveal. The rear north wall and return of the lower rear wing have metal-framed windows grouped between brick piers beneath continuous cills and lintels, giving them horizontal emphasis.

INTERIOR: stairs rise the full height of the building while parallel secondary stairs run from ground floor level to third floor. In both cases masonry stairs are built against the inner window reveal, creating a full height space between the mullions and glazing which is attached to chamfered masonry spurs. The main stair has an oak balustrade and at the half landing entrance to the chapel it has a curved outer profile and a robust masonry newel. Within the inner curve is a recess with an oak cill which corresponds with the window cill. A similar stair with terrazzo steps and dado and an oak lined recess descends to the basement from the entrance hall. Built into the panelled balustrade at hall level is a post box. The entrance hall has a wood parquet floor. Throughout the building, although not exclusively, there are doorcases with channeled and mitred frames. Doors are now clad in flush fire resistant panels. The basement room, originally the gymnasium, has a double-width masonry doorcase with a curved profile, echoing the main entrance doorcase.

The chapel is a tall, narrow space beneath a barrel vaulted roof with plain rear arches to the windows, and is unadorned except for the apse. The apsidal end wall is lined in coffered timber panelling, now painted gold. Above, the apse roof is lined in a mosaic in Byzantine manner, by Eric Newton. It depicts Christ beneath a starry firmament and above a scrolled, wavy sea and holding an opened book which reads: IN THIS PLACE/ WILL I/ GIVE PEACE. To the left is inscribed: PEACE/ I LEAVE/ WITH YOU/ MY PEACE I/ GIVE UNTO YOU. To the right: NOT AS/ THE WORLD/ GIVETH/ GIVE I/ UNTO YOU.

The chapel has a pair of oak part-glazed doors beneath a round arched overlight, with quadrant mouldings in the angles, such that the frames are in the from of a cross. It has a terrazzo threshold, but elsewhere the floor is hidden beneath a timber platform which raises the floor level.

History

St Michael's House was built as a clubhouse in 1938 by the nearby church of St Michael, Chester Square (1844-6 by Thomas Cundy Junior, listed Grade II) to encourage a Christian way of life that extended beyond attendance at church, through the provision of community facilities. The vicar at the time, Rev. W H Elliott, was a prominent public figure, famous for his weekly radio broadcasts.

The building was laid out with the usual provisions for a working men's club, but also with a chapel and segregated facilities for boys and girls, a gym with changing facilities, and a caretaker's flat. On completion, St Michael's House was commended in the architectural press for the manner in which it fitted a number of functions into a restricted site, in an original yet logical way (A&BN, 4th March,1938, p. 237) for its 'striking formation' and fulfillment of its 'manifold social requirements' (Brick Builder, 1 June 1938, pp.12-18) while it was also published in the Builder (18 March 1938, pp. 539-42).

It was designed by the N F Cachemaille-Day (1896 -1976). He was a prolific and highly regarded architect who specialised in ecclesiastical buildings and had a keen interest in the inter-war programme to extend the church's mission within the community and establish the church in the new suburbs. He trained at the Architectural Association and became a Fellow of the RIBA in 1935. He worked with Louis de Soissons, and as chief assistant to Goodhart-Rendel, before forming a partnership with Felix Lander and Herbert Welch. He set up independently in 1935, having established a reputation as a church architect. He produced some notable and forward thinking churches during the 1930s, including St Nicholas, Burnage, Manchester 1931-33, for which he designed an extension in 1963 (listed Grade II*), the church of the Epiphany, Leeds of 1936-8 (listed Grade I), and St Michael and All Angels, Wythenshawe built in 1937 (listed Grade II*). St Michael's House reflects the northern European architectural influence on Cachemaille-Day's work at the time, in the forms and massing and use of brick.

The apse of the chapel is decorated with a mosaic by Eric Newton. Aside from his reputation as a craftsman, Eric Newton (1893-1965), born Eric Oppenheimer, was principally known as an art critic, writer and broadcaster. His father owned an architectural decoration firm in Manchester, Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd, where Newton worked from 1913 until 1922 as a designer and craftsman specialising in mosaics, before setting up in business in his own right.

Early in his career he designed a scheme for the church of St Joseph, Heywood, Lancashire (1914, listed Grade II). Later commissions included a mosaic scheme for the RC church of St John the Baptist, Rochdale, Lancashire (church 1923-5; mosaic installed 1930-33, listed Grade II*) depicting Christ the King, and immediately preceding St Michael’s House he was commissioned to create a large apse mosaic of the Nativity of Christ for the Royal Naval Hospital School, Holbrook, Suffolk (1937, listed Grade II). In 1961 he completed a scheme for the Church of the Sacred Heart, Sheffield.

In 1935 Newton delivered a series of BBC radio lectures entitled ‘The Artist and His Public,’ which appeared as his first book the same year. His broadcast series and weekly symposium ‘The Critics’, also for the BBC, made him a household name. Critical works include 'European Painting and Sculpture' (Pelican Books, 1941) and 'The Romantic Rebellion' (1962). He undertook lecture tours in North America both before and after the Second World War, and in 1937 at the behest of the National Gallery of Canada. He was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University for the year 1959-60 and from 1960 to 1963 was art adviser to the Commonwealth Institute.

Reasons for Listing

St Michael's House, 2 Elizabeth Street, a parish clubhouse of 1938 by N F Cachemaille-Day, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: a striking, carefully detailed composition, inspired by forward-thinking continental ideas, executed in high quality materials, by an accomplished architect at the height of his career;
* Plan and function: designed to meet a mix of social functions, expertly housed in one building on a narrow site, each area given architectural prominence appropriate to its role;
* Intactness: very little altered, the elevations retain their original modelling, and the principal interior spaces and fittings survive well;
* Fixtures and fittings: include external detailing and internal joinery and the notable mosaic by Newton;
* Social and historic interest: built by the parish to encourage a Christian way of life beyond attendance at church, it was also part of a wider reforming programme nationally, to provide respectable, family-friendly facilities for exercise, entertainment and leisure.

External Links

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