Sion College And Attached Railings

TQ 3180 NW VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, EC4 13/161 Sion College and attached railings (Formerly listed as Sion College)

5.6.72

II GV

College building. 1886 by Sir Arthur Blomfield. Ground floor extension 1965-6. Red brick with stone dressings. Tudor Gothic style. Irregular storeys and fenestration. Entrance now removed to John Carpenter Street return. Ground floor projecting extension of vertically set windows in narrow recesses extends across the front of the return to No 9 Carmelite Street (qv). 1st floor to left, 5-light. traceried window centre 3-lights forming an oriel, surmounted by a battlemented parapet. Central hall with double-height 5-light traceried window through 1st and 2nd floors surmounted by a cusped balustrade, behind which a diaper patterned pediment; buttress to left terminating in an octagonal feature with domed roof; octagonal stair tower to right with slit windows and terminating in a traceried belvedere with pointed roof. To right, the original projecting, buttressed entrance; ground floor converted to 3-light traceried window, above paired 2-light windows and pediment with blind tracery flanked by tall finials. Entrance on return of porch with moulded ogee arch having fine carved stone insets including grotesque masks and armorial devices; spandrels of blind tracery with carved shields. Above, a panel of blind tracery. Buttressed return of irregular traceried fenestration; right hand angle with facetted stair tower having paired slit lights. Attached wrought and cast iron railings to areas. Built as a social centre and library for the clergy of London. Sion College forms a group with No 9 Carmelite Street.

Listing NGR: TQ3149380858