Elizabeth House

Elizabeth House

Former Princess Elizabeth Hostel for the Mothercraft Society, now residential use. Built 1928–30 to designs by Richardson and Gill.

The building is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish Bond with brick tile dressings. It is 3 storeys plus attic and basement, arranged to a butterfly plan in the Neo-Georgian style. The roof features hipped mansard tiles and brick chimneys. Windows throughout are original rectangular metal casements with hoppers and leaded panes, set under tightly spaced brick tiles arranged to resemble finely gauged flat arches. The building is fitted with metal-framed Crittal windows.

The principal elevation faces south-east. It has a central block of 5 window bays flanked by 2 projecting wings set at 45-degree angles, each of 4 window bays. The most prominent feature is a 2-storey colonnaded veranda with 6 pairs of concrete piers, returning concavely to the wings where it finishes in a single engaged pier. Iron railings of revivalist diamond design run at first and roof level. Five sets of French doors with leaded panes and arched overlights open to the veranda at ground and first floor; the top level of the central bay has a simpler single door. Stall board lights at first and second floors provide additional light. Fire escapes on each side are later additions. The south wing's roof was rebuilt to original designs following Second World War bomb damage.

The side and rear elevations feature similar windows, including a pair of oval windows with layered tile surrounds. To the rear on the west side is a 1950s extension with an arched opening and tiled surround, surmounted by a later concrete lintel. On the north side stands an original 2-storey tiled arch emphasising the stairwell, with a later entrance of brick piers capped with stone urns, approached by a sweeping stone staircase with metal railing.

The ground floor plan has been altered by partitioning larger former sitting rooms in the central section into bedrooms. The first and second floors largely retain their original plan, though with some rearrangement. Two open well staircases with metal balusters remain.

Elizabeth House was built on the instigation of the Mothercraft Training Society (formerly the Babies of the Empire Society), following a public subscription appeal in 1928 that raised £25,000. The building was erected in the grounds of Cromwell House, a 17th-century mansion which the organisation had occupied since 1924. Originally called the Princess Elizabeth Hostel, it was opened in 1930 by Princess Elizabeth (wife of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II), whose name it bears.

The Mothercraft Training Society built Elizabeth House to promote innovative baby-care methods. New and prospective mothers stayed in the hostel for a fixed term and, under the instruction of live-in nurses, learned to breast-feed at regular intervals, care for babies in airy and light surroundings, follow dietary plans to enrich breast-milk, and recognise symptoms of common causes of infant mortality such as malnourishment and diarrhoea. The Society also conducted a programme of lectures and open days to train external nurses and local new mothers in baby-care principles, managed a health clinic and day-centre. The matron was Mabel Liddiard CBE, author of The Mothercraft Manual (1924), president of the Royal College of Midwives and founder of the Mothercraft Training Society. Liddiard trained under Sir Truby King, a pioneer of the child welfare movement. Princess Elizabeth served as President of the Mothercraft Training Society from 1923 and visited the site during the 1930s and 1940s.

The building remained in the Mothercraft Society's ownership until 1951, when it was sold to the Metropolitan Police for use as police officers' housing. Since the late 1980s it has been in private ownership.