Paget Memorial Mission Hall And Ancillary Building

PAGET MEMORIAL MISSION HALL AND ANCILLARY BUILDINGS

Islington, Randells Road

This mission hall and ancillary accommodation was built in 1911, as dated in the pediment over the main entrance, though it possibly incorporates part of earlier terraced houses. It was designed by Arthur Beresford Pite and built by the Reverend Sholto Douglas, later Lord Blythswood, in memory of his wife, Violet Paget, who had held a Bible class on this spot in 1887–89.

The building is constructed of yellow brick with bands of red brick set in Flemish bond, with stucco detailing and a slate roof. It comprises three storeys arranged across a seven-window range. Along Randells Road the buildings present a flat facade that continues the treatment of the surrounding terrace, except for the distinctive window-openings of the chapel. The Superintendent's rooms and missionaries' flats are positioned to the left of and above the chapel.

The main entrance to the chapel is a flat-arched opening with a moulded stucco architrave and pediment. To its left is a segmental-arched house entrance. Above runs a mosaic fascia inscribed 'PAGET MEMORIAL MISSION HALL'. The chapel front features a stucco panel pierced by two pointed- and shoulder-arched windows with a lunette window above them; all other windows are segmental-arched. A parapet crowns the facade.

The interior of the hall incorporates features from an earlier date, some or all of which came from Douglas Support, near Coatbridge, Lanarkshire—the former home of Lord Blythswood. Most of the decoration dates to 1911, though these earlier pieces have been incorporated throughout.

The hall is panelled to window-height, with the panelling arranged in arcaded form. The spandrels are decorated with cartouches painted with the monogram VP (Violet Paget), and the muntins are carved with drops; the cartouches were probably designed by Martin Travers, a pupil of Pite. All cornices are decorated with gilt stencilled violets.

At the east end, the panelling is surmounted by a broad pediment carrying the arms of Lord Blythswood, with inscriptions over the arch of the east window and on raised plaster panels above.

A broad balustraded pulpit has square newel posts and balusters with the rail decorated with hearts and rosettes. Incorporated into the pulpit are two torcheres with Venetian walnut figures representing Vice and Virtue, probably of late 17th- or 18th-century date.

Two ornate chimney-pieces occupy the south wall. The eastern one features an overmantel decorated with carved wooden hearts, interlaced ornament and scrolling foliage, framed by Baroque columns that are bulbous in their lower parts with grotesque and foliage carving, rising into barley-sugar form above. These columns support a shallow segmental pediment whose tympanum is filled with carved oak branches and a lion rampant in low relief. The pediment is surmounted by three statuary figures, the central one representing Christ, by Thorwaldsen. The western chimney-piece is pedimented and incorporates a portrait of Violet Paget in the overmantel.

A fireplace in the north wall is surmounted by a mantelshelf and overmantel flanked by two strips of Jacobean or neo-Jacobean carving incorporating term figures and foliage.

An organ gallery at the west end is carried on Baroque columns bulbous in the lower part and of barley-sugar form above, with a balustrade featuring square newel posts and balusters with hearts and rosettes. The organ was formerly at Douglas Support. A pedimented canopy at the north-west corner entrance is carried on slim columns whose upper parts are decorated with spiral fluting.

The Leader's Room, at the west end of the ancillary accommodation, contains a fireplace flanked by elaborate columns decorated with fluting and carrying a canopy.