London Scottish House, City of Westminster, London

Summary

Drill hall. 1985-1988. Built to designs by Duncan Cardow of TP Bennett for the London Scottish Regiment to replace their previous drill hall at 59 Buckingham Gate and incorporating elements from that building which was built between 1882 and 1886 by John MacVicar Anderson.

Description

MATERIALS: mix of contrasting light and dark red brickwork. Aluminium-framed windows. Roof structure and galleries of wrought iron relocated from the earlier drill hall.

PLAN: rectangular, three-storey, flat-roofed, administrative range fronting onto Horseferry Road with a centrally placed, square-plan, double-galleried drill hall to the rear forming an overall T-shaped plan. There is also a lower-height, flat-roofed, three-storey ancillary range on the Elverton Street elevation. This is separated from the front range by the single-storey entrance to the underground garaging* which is not of special interest. On the raised ground floor an entrance lobby, with lifts on the south side and main stair on the north, leads directly into the drill hall. Offices*, arranged on a corridor on either side of the entrance lobby are not of special interest. The second floor of the front range contains the main reception/mess rooms* which are not of special interest.

EXTERIOR: designed in a Post-Modern, neo-Classical style, the principal elevation onto Horseferry Road is symmetrical and of 13 bays divided above the ground floor by giant pilasters of light-red brick, paired at the ends of the range, and contrasting with the dark brick walling. The central three bays containing the entrance project slightly and are topped with a pediment. The capitals are formed by ten courses of cogged brickwork and separated by panels of corbelled brickwork. The cornice, topped by a parapet, consists of a dog-tooth string-course below courses of stacked headers. The first and second floors are separated by rectangular panels of 12 glazed blue tiles with a surround of narrow bricks laid on edge. The ground floor has a plinth with rusticated brick panelling above and a brick cornice with a dog-tooth string-course. Fenestration is of paired aluminium-framed casements (those to the first floor having transoms and those to the outer of the three central bays being single casements). The windows have square-headed openings with brick sills and pale-red rubbed brick lintels, except those on the ground floor which have stone sills and lintels formed by the raised brick panelling above. The first-floor window directly over the entrance is recessed with a pair of stone colonettes flanking an angled flagpole. The recessed main entrance is reached via a flight of nine stone steps with a metal balustrade with timber handrails and flanked by a pair of stone columns with square bases and narrow plain capitals. The entrance is of panelled, blue-painted, double doors in a plain opening. Above the entrance and extending over the cornice is an oversize Portland stone keystone bearing the badge of the London Scottish in relief.

The Elverton Street elevation of the front block is in the same style, of four bays with blind windows to the second bay which has an entrance in a plain opening. To the left, separated by a flat-roofed vehicular entrance to the basement with metal sliding shutters, is a lower three-storey range, styled to resemble a Georgian town house. This is of two-bays with simplified versions of some of the decorative elements of the main range. The ground floor has two entrances in plain brick openings, simplified rusticated brickwork and a corbelled brick cornice. The pairs of upper storey windows comprise aluminium-framed faux sash windows with rubbed brick lintels and brick sills. There is a corbelled brick cornice and the parapet has stone copings. Behind this range, the southern elevation of the drill hall is blind apart from two fire escape doors at gallery level and two pairs of narrow decorative banding of pale-red brick.

Above the parapet are the clerestory windows of the pitched, slate-clad wrought-iron roof structure. The windows consist of two tiers of triple-light timber windows in metal frames. The top tier are mechanically opened top-hung casements. The gable ends of the roof structure are fully glazed in metal frames hung from blue-painted wrought-iron trusses extending over the roof at each end.

INTERIOR: the principal internal space is the triple-height drill hall with two tiers of white-painted wrought-iron galleries with lattice girders and H-section uprights, suspended from the exposed roof trusses and extending around all four sides. The galleries are of three bays to the sides, reduced from the five bays on the long sides of the original hall, and five shorter bays at the ends. The lower gallery is supported on fluted brackets and has a balustrade with four panels to each bay on the sides and two panels to each bay at the ends. The panels consist or a red-painted frame with white-painted diagonal elements forming a six-pointed star, with a blue-painted rosette on the central intersection. The upper gallery balustrade is simpler with a grid of white-painted iron bars within a red-painted frame. All the balustrades have timber handrails. The H-section uprights separating the bays have four, blue-painted, foliate decorations to each tier and rise to volutes over the upper gallery. The roof has four trusses formed from lattice-truss rafters over arched ties with scrollwork decoration. These are connected by lattice-truss purlins with a blue-painted boarded roof.

On the ground-floor of the hall, the entrance is formed of the re-erected, but altered, stone Doric portal from the original drill hall. This has (new) fluted pilasters, an entablature bearing the legend: HEAD QUARTERS/ LONDON SCOTTISH RIFLE VOLUNTEERS/ ERECTED A.D MDCCCLXXXVI/ RE-ERECTED MCMLXXXVIII and a pediment containing the Coat of Arms of Scotland with the motto IN DEFENS surrounded by thistle foliage. Above the pediment is a bronze bust of the founder of the regiment, Lord Elcho, later the Earl of Wemyss and March (1818-1914) on an open Portland stone plinth. On the other three sides of the hall are large war memorials also relocated from the original drill hall.

On the south side of the hall is a wall-mounted marble Boer War memorial from 1904 by the architect L A Turner of Lambs Conduit Street. This consists of a central tablet of Swiss Cipollino marble with the motto NON SIBI/ SED PATRIAE and a central plaque, of Statuary marble from Carrara, bearing the names of the 16 dead, by rank, with underneath the dedication TO THE MEMORY/ OF OUR COMRADES/ SOUTH AFRICA 1900-1902. Over the memorial plaque is a projecting canopy with a Queen Anne arch supported on Doric columns and containing a small bronze statue of Queen Victoria as Britannia, presented by her daughter Princess Louise, with the Royal Coat of Arms in relief. Below the canopy is a painted shield bearing the Scottish lion rampant surmounted by a thistle. Flanking the central tablet are narrow Statuary marble tablets containing the names of the other 200 members of the regiment who served in the Boer War.

On the west side of the hall is a large wall-mounted wooden First World War memorial panel designed by Captain Archibald Chisholm MC, unveiled in 1923 by Field Marshal The Earl Haig. It consists of a series of wooden panels surrounding the original Portland stone fireplace. The central panel, flanked by panelled pilaster strips, bears the dedication: IN MEMORY OF ALL RANKS OF THE/ LONDON SCOTTISH REGIMENT/ WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WAR /1914-1919 over the regimental battle honours. Over this is a carving of the regimental badge set in a broken segmental pediment. On either side of the central panel, below the dentil cornice, are five tall panels bearing the names and rank of around 1,600 fallen, carved in relief and gilded. The fireplace bears evidence of the Second World War bomb damage and has a keystone inscribed with the details of the unveiling of the memorial. The memorial was renovated in 1988.

The Second World War memorial by Oliver Hill, on the north side of the hall, is of cream-coloured marble and was dedicated in December 1952 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. It consists of a wall constructed of marble blocks with a concave central section topped by a painted drapery swag below which is the regimental badge in carved relief with a lapis lazuli centre and gilded lettering. The central section bears the dates 1939-1945 in Roman numerals below which are the Second World War battle honours. A recess holds a book of honour, under which is the inscription: TO THE MEMORY OF ALL RANKS OF/ THE LONDON SCOTTISH REGIMENT/ WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WAR. Beneath the inscription is a section of dark brown-coloured marble topped by a shelf. The rest of the memorial consists of six columns of the names and rank of the 383 fallen, with a carved disc motif in a recessed square at the foot of each column.

The hall dado has a series of iron ventilation grilles in the same pattern as the first-floor balustrade panels, presumably re-use of panels not required due to the shortening of the original space.

The first floor of the main range, reached via a staircase on the north of the entrance lobby with an iron balustrade and brass handrail, has a function room* at the south end which is not of special interest. On the second floor is a suite of mess/function rooms*, separated by folding doors, running along the front of the building, which are not of special interest. The lobby at the north end has a number of wooden plaques recording the Presidents of the Sergeant’s Mess re-located from the earlier drill hall. Other office space* is standard for the period and not of special interest.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.

History

The London Scottish Regiment was founded in London in 1859 as a Volunteer Rifle Corps, the London Scottish Rifle Volunteers, with enrolment restricted to those connected to Scotland by birth, descent, marriage or property. The regiment became the first British volunteer unit to offer its services for service overseas, during the Second Boer War, and in 1900 two contingents of the regiment were attached to the Gordon Highlanders and the City Imperial Volunteers in South Africa.

During the First World War the regiment, now designated the 14th Battalion County of London Regiment (London Scottish), was the first Territorial unit to see action on the Western Front, on 30 October 1914 during the Battle of Gheluvelt, part of 1st Ypres. The First Battalion The London Scottish served on the Western Front for the duration of the war while the Second Battalion served from 1916 in Greece and Palestine. During the Second World War the regiment served in the Middle East, Sicily and Italy. In 1967 the London Scottish became G (London Scottish) Company, 1st Battalion 51st Highland Volunteers, before being transferred in 1992 as A (London Scottish) Company of the London Regiment.

After a period of temporary accommodation following their formation, the regiment’s first purpose-built drill hall was built between 1882 and 1886 at 59 Buckingham Gate. The building was by the Scottish architect, John MacVicar Anderson, and, as described in The Builder on 19 June 1886, it featured an innovative design in which the two tiers of galleries around the main drill hall and floor beams of the rooms at either end of the hall were suspended from the wrought iron roof structure. The drill hall was 120ft (36.6m) long by 62ft (19m) wide with the ironwork supplied by Messrs Matthew T Shaw of Cannon Street, London. The building was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War but was repaired post-war with some alteration to the galleries, including the insertion of a mezzanine floor at upper gallery level at one end of the hall.

From the 1960s, partly due to the age of 59 Buckingham Gate and its unsuitability for modern army requirements and partly because of the much smaller post-war size of the unit, proposals for relocation to a new site were made, although it took until the 1980s before a workable scheme, in association with the property developers Speyhawk, came to fruition. The original site for a new headquarters at a Westminster City Council highways depot on Monck Street fell through in January 1984 before a new site, a former Ministry of Labour building at 95 Horseferry Road, was purchased, later that year, from the government by Speyhawk who undertook to develop the Buckingham Gate site and build a new headquarters on Horseferry Road. Just before demolition started in 1985, 59 Buckingham Gate was listed at Grade II and after a series of negotiations with interested parties it was subsequently agreed that listed building consent for the development of the site would be granted in return for a new design for 95 Horseferry Road which would incorporate historic elements of the original drill hall. The architectural practice of TP Bennett, with Duncan Cardow as the job architect, produced the new plans which were approved by the Greater London Council in December 1985. In February 1986 the iron roof structure and galleries of 59 Buckingham Gate were dismantled before being restored and re-erected on the new building with a reduced length of three rather than five bays. Other principal elements of the original drill hall such as the three large war memorials and the portico were also incorporated. The new headquarters were opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 26 April 1988.

John MacVicar Anderson (1835-1915) was born and studied in Glasgow, but moved to London around 1851 and was apprenticed in the architectural practice of William Clarke and George Bell, former pupils of his uncle William Burn, an eminent architect who had pioneered the Scottish Baronial style. Upon completing his articles at Burn's London practice he was taken into partnership around 1868, worked closely with his uncle, particularly on country house commissions, and succeeded him upon his death in 1870. He became friends with fellow architects Richard Norman Shaw and William Eden Nesfield and was admitted as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1864. Throughout the late C19 and early C20 Anderson designed many buildings in London and in Scotland and was elected President of the RIBA in 1891. MacVicar Anderson has 11 buildings on the statutory List, mainly remodelling of country houses including Crichel House, Dorset and Barrington Park, Gloucestershire, both listed at Grade I.

The London-based architects' practice TP Bennett & Sons was founded in 1921 by Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett and developed into a large and well-regarded firm. During the 1920s the practice evolved from building apartment blocks, especially in the west end of London, before expanding to design commercial ventures including theatres and cinemas. Dorset House, Marylebone, London (with Joseph Emberton, 1935 – NHLE 1323725) and the former Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London (1929-31 - NHLE 1271631) from the inter-war period are both listed at Grade II. During the post-war period the practice diversified into commercial developments, perhaps most notably at Smithfield Poultry Market, London (1961-3 - NHLE 1381209 - Grade II). They also became involved in motorway architecture at an early stage with the Pennine Tower at Forton Services on the M6 near Lancaster of 1964-1965 (NHLE 1404607), listed at Grade II.

Duncan Cardow (1944-2021) joined TP Bennett & Sons in 1972, becoming senior partner in 1987 a position he held until he retired in 1999. Among other buildings, he oversaw the designs for the Financial Times Building, Southwark (1989).

Reasons for Listing

London Scottish House, 95 Horseferry Road, LB Westminster, former drill hall of the London Scottish Regiment, built in 1985-1988 and incorporating elements of the previous drill hall of 1882-1886, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the innovative late-Victorian wrought iron roof structure and galleries, restored from the original drill hall;

* for its exteriors in a neo-Georgian style which references traditional drill hall design but with subtle use of Post-Modern elements to enliven the elevations;

* for the high-quality of the brickwork;

* for the three restored war memorials which are all of high-quality design and materials;

* for the involvement of notable late-C19 and C20 architectural practices.

Historical interest:

* for its associations as the former headquarters of the London Scottish Regiment, a Volunteer unit with a distinguished history, formed in 1859 with close links to Westminster.

Group value:

* with the adjacent Grade II* listed Royal Horticultural Society New Hall.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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.