Claremont Hall And Forecourt Walls, Railings And Gatepiers

CLAREMONT HALL AND FORECOURT WALLS, RAILINGS AND GATEPIERS

A Grade II listed building set back from the north side of Pentonville Road in Islington. Built in 1819, originally as Claremont Chapel, a non-conformist meeting house financed by Thomas Wilson for the Congregationalists. The architect is uncertain but may have been Andrew or John Blyth, or John or William Wallen. The building later served as a non-conformist mission (Claremont Hall) from 1902 onwards, and latterly as commercial showrooms and an exhibition hall.

The building is constructed of stock bricks with a stuccoed front elevation, arranged on a rectangular plan in the Neo-classical style. It rises two storeys above a basement and is approached by full-width steps (widened in the 20th century) with a stucco balustrade to the ends. The façade displays a three-window range with symmetrical composition and a projecting central pedimented bay. The ground floor features a prostyle Ionic portico with paired columns framing a central architraved doorway with double 20th-century doors and an eleven-paned rectangular overlight. Flanking this are round-arched architraved side entrances, probably altered in the 20th century, with paterae and console-bracketed open pediments, multi-paned fanlights, wide panelled corniced-heads and panelled doors. The first floor has three sash windows with round-arched architraves and keystones; the sashes retain curved, wavy and radial glazing bars and double margin lights, with console-bracketed egg-and-dart cornices and small brackets to the sills.

The front elevation underwent successive alterations. In 1854 Henry Owen added a front terrace, largely since destroyed. In 1860 Mr. Tarry carried out further alterations. Around 1902 additional modifications were made. The ground-floor dado displays vermiculated rusticated stonework, with rusticated block dressings and quoins. The entablature features foliated scrolled frieze panels in low relief in the outer bays; the centre bay frieze is inscribed with the word 'CLAREMONT'. An egg-and-dart and modillioned cornice with blocking course completes the façade. The left return elevation contains three round-arched sashes on the upper level, with a rear extension beyond.

Attached to the building are stucco forecourt walls, fine cast-iron railings, and cast and wrought-iron gate piers to the front, all in the Neo-classical style.

The interior originally featured an oval gallery running around the entire chapel space. This was truncated in 1860 during alterations by Mr. Tarry. The interior has been substantially altered in more recent years, including the insertion of a mezzanine floor within the chapel space around 1970. The original wooden handrail to the front interior staircase survives.

The chapel closed in 1899 and remained disused until 1902, when the London Congregational Union established a mission at the premises. In recent decades the building was let for use as commercial showrooms. By 1990 the building was undergoing extensive exterior work and interior alterations.

The basement contains a natural spring, traditionally said to have supplied drinking water for cattle kept on the site prior to the building's construction. The chapel is considered probably the most ambitious and architecturally significant non-conformist chapel of the early 19th century in the Borough of Islington, notwithstanding the substantial alteration of its interior. Thomas Wilson, the patron and financier, had previously assisted in building Paddington Chapel and Craven Chapel.