Central St Martin'S College Of Art And Design

TQ3081NW 798-1/100/1483

CAMDEN SOUTHAMPTON ROW (East side) Central St Martin's College of Art and Design

(Formerly Listed as: SOUTHAMPTON ROW Central School of Arts and Crafts)

11/11/82

II* Includes: Central St Martin's College of Art and Design THEOBALDS ROW. College of art and design. 1905-8. By London County Council Architects' Department, General Section, job architect AH Verstage, influenced by WR Lethaby. Base of Cornish granite, upper storeys of Portland stone, lead roof.

EXTERIOR: Five storeys and corner attic. Long front of 14 windows to Southampton Row, canted corner and short return of six windows to Theobalds Road and three to High Holborn. Ground storey has round-headed windows and impost bands with rectangular slabs of granite above, originally intended for relief carvings. First and second storeys have windows of irregular width, slightly recessed and united under a round-headed arch. Third storey with similar windows between string courses. Fourth storey with small, square windows alternating with decorative stone grilles in the form of lozenges with inset circles. Heavy bracketed cornice. Canted corner has enriched treatment with various styles of window to staircase, high ogee double dome in lead over cornice, and small sculpture on ground storey showing woman with a sword supporting coats of arms of St George and City of London, dated 1908 and with the inscription 'Labor omnia vincit'. Former entrance to London Day Training College on Southampton Row, right of centre, now blocked, with slightly projecting bay above it and main cornice raised into a curve. Entrance to art college towards Theobalds Road in similar style, its sliding wooden doors with enriched panelling. Above the door "LCC Central School of Arts & Crafts" in bronze.

INTERIOR is interesting spatially. Vaulted entrance hall faced in Hopton Wood stone. Generous main staircase similarly lined. Exhibition hall rectangular with canted ends, partly vaulted, springing from a single central column and partly covered by a glazed dome.

HISTORICAL NOTE: built as the Central School of Arts and Crafts (N section) and London Day Training College (S section). WR Lethaby was Principal of the Central School at the time of building and is commemorated on the Southampton Row elevation by a blue plaque.

TQ3081NW 798-1/100/1483

CAMDEN THEOBALDS ROW Central St Martin's College of Art and Design

11/11/82

II*

See under: Central St Martin's College of Art and Design SOUTHAMPTON ROW.

Listing NGR: TQ3050081670