23 Kensington Square, Queen's Gate, London

Summary

The main building at 23 Kensington Square comprises two distinct parts of different dates and styles. To the east are a pair of town houses built around 1838. Attached to the west is a Gothic style former convent school designed by George Goldie, which was built in phases, 1875-1876, 1882 and 1888-1889, as finance became available. The late C19 section of the former convent to the west of the main L-shaped block is not included. The 1929 addition by Joseph Goldie at the west end of the convent school buildings and attached 1960s Assembly Hall by C Lovett Gill are also not included.

Description

The main building at 23 Kensington Square comprises two distinct parts of different dates and styles. To the east are a pair of town houses built circa 1838 for Frederick Pratt Barlow. Attached to the west is a Gothic style former convent school designed by George Goldie, which was built in phases, 1875-6, 1882 and 1888-9, as finance became available. The late C19 section of the former convent to the west of the main L-shaped block is not included. The 1929 addition by Joseph Goldie at the west end of the Convent school buildings and attached 1960s Assembly Hall by C. Lovett Gill are also not included.

THE FORMER TOWN HOUSES

Built circa 1838, the architect or builder is not at present known. Extensions were added to the rear between 1870 and 1896 and in 1925 the original area railings and porches were removed and replaced by a 1925 gallery by Joseph Goldie.

MATERIALS: brown brick in Flemish bond with red brick dressings. Iron railings including some re-sited. Roof concealed by parapet. Stuccoed ground floor and basement projection.

PLAN: two nearly identical town houses of four storeys and basement and three bays, originally with entrance porches to left hand bays and two principal rooms on each floor. The original plan form was later modified by rear extensions, the replacement of porches by a ground and basement projecting extension and some later internal partitions.

EXTERIOR: the north-west or entrance front has a parapet with stone coping and terracotta decoration. The windows above ground floor are mainly 12-pane sash windows in reveals, except for the top floor of the eastern part which has nine-pane sashes. The original ground floor windows were enlarged when the 1925 extension to both ground floor and basement was added. This has round-headed windows to the ground floor linked by impost bands and an off-centre projecting doorcase with round-headed arch, approached up a flight of steps with solid balustrades, and crowned by a swans neck arch with central cross on plinth. There is a narrower entrance with round-headed fanlight to the east. There are plain C20 area railings but some re-sited heart and honeysuckle motif panels on the right hand side of the area.

The south-east or rear elevation is similar but has only two windows across each house and later multi-storey projections. A number of multi-pane sash windows survive, others have been replaced, and the western property retains a cast iron conservatory on the first floor with anthemion motifs to the balcony and French windows. A flat-roofed stuccoed extension to the ground floor and basement of the western part with segmental-headed sash windows is shown on the 1896 Ordnance Survey map but was probably altered in the C20 as it differs from an 1895 bird's eye view of the convent and school.

The other exterior walls are obscured by the convent chapel to the east and the convent school building to the west.

INTERIOR: each of the houses retains an original staircase from ground to second floor with cast iron railings imitating bamboo but a wooden handrail with decorative end. The eastern house additionally retains an original staircase from second floor to attic. The western house has an early C20 wooden staircase in this position. The western part ground floor retains a plaster cornice, ceiling rose and black marble fire surround in the ground floor rear room which was formerly a parlour. The ground floor room to the eastern part also retains a plastered cornice and ceiling rose. Some other rooms also retain cornices and window shutters, four-panelled doors and skirting boards.

FORMER CONVENT SCHOOL BUILDING

This was designed by the Architect George Goldie in 1875 in Gothic style and built in successive phases, 1875-6, 1882 and 1888-9. The late C19 section of the former convent to the west of the main L-shaped block is not included. There is an attached 1929 addition by Joseph Goldie and a 1960s assembly hall by the firm of C Lovett Gill and Partners which are not included.

MATERIALS: yellow brick in English bond with stone cornice, band and window cills with polychrome red brick window heads and black brick bands, cast iron balconettes, wooden casement windows and slate roofs with brick chimneystacks.

PLAN: a roughly L-shaped building of three storeys, basement and attics of ten bays to east, projecting by five bays to south and with a two storey wing to the west. The eastern part has a northern corridor to the lower floors and central corridor above. Old Photographs of the convent school show dormitories in the south wing. The west wing plan dated 1875 shows it originally contained a recreation hall on the ground floor and a drawing room and eight piano practice rooms on the first floor.

EXTERIOR: the south-east side has five original gabled dormers with finials and five early C20 larger flat-roofed dormers. There is an elaborate stone cornice with dentils and pilasters between the bays on the first and second floors. The second floor windows are tall casement windows with cast iron balconettes with quatrefoil motifs and French windows. The first floor windows are pointed arched multi-pane casements. The ground floor windows are larger pointed-arched casements with central septfoil motifs flanked by trefoils above trefoil-headed casements. The semi-basement has segmental arches to the windows and iron grilles, an off-centre pedimented doorcase and a smaller segmental-headed entrance.

The north-west side is identical to the south-east side but is interrupted by a 1960s full-height projecting brick and glazed 1960s lift to one bay.

The projecting attached five bay south L-wing is similar to the longer wing and has two dormers along the sides. The only differences to the sides of the L-wing are that there are no balconettes to the second floor windows and there is a rendered projecting plinth. It's south-east end is of two bays and has a pediment with two cinquefoil oculi divided by a central pilaster merging into a buttress and there are corner clasping buttresses.

Adjoining the west side of the L-wing is Goldie's two storey west wing with four narrow first floor windows to the original music practice rooms, three further casement windows and arched windows on the ground floor. It is partially obscured to the south by the 1960s single storey assembly hall by the firm of C Lovett Gill and Partners.

INTERIOR: the basement has a vaulted corridor. The main staircase has turned balusters and carved newel posts. Several large rooms on the ground and first floors have stone corbels and wooden beams to their ceilings, some beams painted. The Library retains an original white marble fireplace. A first floor corridor has panelled doors with transom lights. A second floor corridor has a series of wooden panelled doors, the transom lights later blocked and was probably originally nuns' cells. The attics have some exposed roof timbers, some boarded.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 04/05/2018

History

The land on which 23 Kensington Square was built was first developed in the later C17 by a cabinet maker, Thomas Young, and comprised a large single house and a separate coach house and stables in the grounds.

In 1837, this house was sold to Frederick Pratt Barlow, who also owned 24 Kensington Square. He demolished the older house and built two adjacent town houses in circa 1838, re-numbered 23 and 24 and the former 24 (now 24a) became 25a. Barlow lived in the new 24, rented out the adjacent property and owned additional property around the square.

Barlow died in 1859 and his property was auctioned off in lots. Those on the south side of the square, 20, 23, 24, 25a and some other property were bought by the Convent of the Assumption, an educational order founded in Paris in 1839 who moved here from Earl's Court. A chapel was built for the convent in 1868-1871 to designs by George Goldie on the site of 21 and 22 and is listed at Grade II.

A secondary school was founded around 1867-1868, probably in the present number 24. A large school building and convent was built adjacent to Barlow's earlier town houses to designs by George Goldie in phases, 1875-1876, 1882 and 1888-1889 as finance became available.

In 1925, Joseph Goldie (grandson of George Goldie) added a gallery across the fronts of the two town houses to link these buildings to no 24 and the school building and also designed an extension at the west end of the school in 1929 with a further classroom and a laboratory. 23 Kensington Square now includes both the two former town houses and the former convent school building.

From 1946-1978 the school buildings were acquired by the Maria Assumpta College, a Catholic teacher training college. In the 1960s further building projects on the site, all designed by C Lovett Gill and Partners included an addition at the west end of the Goldie school block, the facade retention of number 24, and detached from the early C19 town houses and Goldie school building a student hostel, gymnasium, and convent building.

The Maria Assumpta College closed in 1978 and the buildings were used as the Maria Assumpta Centre for Christian education and pastoral care. In 1993 they were leased to Heythrop College, part of the University of London. In 2009 the convent sold their land and buildings west of the chapel to the Jesuits. Heythrop College is to close at the end of the academic year 2017-2018.

Reasons for Listing

The two former circa 1838 town houses and the adjoining former convent school designed by George Goldie in 1875 for the Sisters of the Assumption and built in phases in 1875-1876, 1882, and 1888-1889 are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the two former town houses survive substantially intact with the survival of some internal fittings and a legible plan;
* the adjoining former convent school was designed by a leading C19 ecclesiastical architect of Catholic buildings, it is impressive in its scale, built of good quality materials with varied external detailing and retains a number of internal fittings and a recognisable plan.

Historic interest:

* the site was developed from the late C17 with surviving 1838 houses and has an unbroken Roman Catholic history from the 1860s up to the present day;

Group value:

* the two former town houses and the former convent school form a group which Grade II-listed buildings which includes Goldie's Chapel of the Assumption adjoining the town houses, 24a and other buildings in Kensington Square.

External Links

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