Institute Of St Marcellina

CAMDEN

TQ2685NW ELLERDALE ROAD 798-1/26/367 (North side) 11/08/50 No.6 Institute of St Marcellina (Formerly Listed as: ELLERDALE ROAD No.6 Hampstead Towers Hotel)

GV I

Detached house, now in use as a convent. 1874-76 by R Norman Shaw for himself; northward extension at rear added 1885-86 by Shaw; minor additions 1892-93; later alterations. Red bricks (narrow bricks for main fronts, normal bricks at back) with rubbed brick hoods and aprons and enriched brick chimneys; some tile-hanging, wooden bargeboards, plaster ornament and render. Tiled roofs. White-painted timber windows of various types, most with leaded lights. STYLE: free Queen-Anne style. EXTERIOR: irregular south-facing front of three and four storeys. Left-hand portion has boldly canted bay window rising through three storeys and crowned by a Chinese-style balcony (formerly timber, now iron) under a small dormer gable with tile-hanging and bargeboards. Right-hand portion has tiers of three 'Ipswich oriels' with plaster ornament between under a similar dormer gable. Tall, narrow windows in centre of various types, irregularly set. On the extreme right, single-storey entrance porch with rubbed brick surround to front (position of original entrance) and overhanging carved timber hood in style of Wren to return (current position of entrance). Tall, square stack right of centre on roof, with brick carving. Western and northern elevations to original house irregular, with massive projecting chimneybreast on west end rising to tall stack, the brickwork much repaired. Western elevation to garden of 1885-6 extension of three storeys, with broad flat-topped, polygonal canted bay rising through upper storeys, rendered between floors. Northern end elevation of extension with further tall chimneybreast. Various later additions on east side. INTERIOR retains original panelled entrance hall and main staircase, and parts of reception rooms on first floor. Dining room survives well, with softwood panelling (formerly painted, now stained and varnished) to height of frieze, exposed timber beams in ceiling,and deep inglenook with applied timber and leather decoration on front, Hispano-Moresque tiles flanking

fireplace and 'den' reached by private stair over inglenook. Drawing room suite now divided, but form of back drawing room with portions of fine screen and deep bay window survives (chimney-piece altered, frieze destroyed); fireplace and part of screen in front drawing room also survives. HISTORICAL NOTE: this was Norman Shaw's house from 1876 to 1912, and in the 'den' above the inglenook he designed many of his buildings, especially after 1896. The informal design of the house was revolutionary in the development of the Queen Anne style. (Saint A: Richard Norman Shaw: London and New Haven: -1976: 176-184).

Listing NGR: TQ2632785528