The Cloisters

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26 February 2024 to amend the name and address and reformat the text to current standards

TL 23 SW 1/23

BARRINGTON ROAD The Cloisters

(Formerly listed as North Hertfordshire Masonic Lodge (The Cloisters))

II*

1906-7 by W H Cowlishaw. Built for Miss Annie Lawrence as a residential School of Psychology. Later converted for use as a preparatory school, then a concert hall. By 1948 it had become a masonic lodge. Romantic composition with an octagonal, high tower and two open turrets with spiral staircases rising above the cloister garth, an open semi-circular court, which was later roofed with a rotunda when used as a concert hall. Other features originally included cubicles for dressing purposes linked to an open swimming bath. Tiled roofs. Grey brick with diaper work patterns and Purbeck stone dressings. The rich, symbolic carved work (doves and bats for example) was mostly uncompleted before the building project in its original form came to a halt in 1907.

Interior of painted brick with mass concrete vaulting. Windows of two-light mullioned casement with leaded lights, and arranged as enormous mullioned key windows around the central court. Entrance in north-west corner approached by flights of steps leading to arched portico. The cloister garth has an arcade with columns of Swedish green marble and a central fountain in Art Nouveau style around the central support of the tower.

Modern additions to the rear.

Listing NGR: TL2204331427