Crosby Hall

Crosby Hall is a great hall and hall of residence of major historical significance. The principal architectural features derive from the Great Hall of the mansion of Crosby Hall, originally built in 1466 by the wool merchant Sir John Crosby in Bishopsgate in the City of London. The original site was redeveloped in the early 20th century, and the building was re-erected in Chelsea under the supervision of Walter Godfrey in 1909–10. The roof of the Great Hall, the oriel window, other windows, some walling, a fireplace and a postern door are all original features from the 15th century. The remainder of the building and a north wing added in 1925–26 are by Walter Godfrey, who designed the north wing to serve as a hall of residence for the British Federation of University Women.

The east wing comprises the Great Hall over an undercroft. The exterior is now of Portland stone, originally Reigate Stone, with windows of Bath stone and a tiled roof with a central octagonal stone louvre. It has a moulded stone coping and parapet. The upper part of the west elevation displays six 15th-century arched double cinquefoil-headed light windows connected by drip moulding, with some traces of Reigate stone remaining between them. The principal feature to the left is a 15th-century three-storey Bath stone oriel with three and a half bays visible on the outside. It has paired cinquefoil-arched windows with crenellated bands between the lower windows. To the right is an arched doorcase with hood moulding, dating from either 1835 or 1910, and an arched door with elaborate hinges and studs from 1910. A stone terrace with railings extends from the basement, featuring two octagonal piers and a flight of stone steps. The rear elevation has ten paired cinquefoil-headed windows with leaded lights to the upper part, connected by drip moulding, with the two right-hand windows shorter than the others. Four three-light windows serve the basement. A 1950s building of no special interest is attached to the south.

To the north is Walter Godfrey's addition of 1924–25, built of brick with a tiled roof. It rises four storeys with attics and has five windows on the Cheyne Walk front and two on the Danvers Street front. Most windows have three or four-light mullions, but a five-light bay to the left features mullioned and transomed windows to the two lower floors and mullioned windows only to the upper floors. A projecting gable of five storeys with two windows rises to the left. An arched doorcase to the ground floor bears inscriptions in its spandrels reading "JC 1466" and "TM 1593", flanked by sidelights. The interior of the 1924–25 extension contains plastered ceilings, original fireplaces and a staircase with iron handrails.

Outside the Great Hall is a late 15th-century two-centred stone opening with blank spandrels, originally a postern door for informal access by the Crosby family into the courtyard of the mansion. A 15th-century stone arched doorcase with roll moulding and black spandrels leads into the Great Hall, which measures 21 by 8 metres. On the east wall is a 15th-century fireplace with a four-centred arch, one section of which has been renewed, and foliated carving to the spandrels. On the west wall is a very fine 15th-century pentangular bay with cinquefoil-headed lights and lierne vaulting. The central boss displays Sir John Crosby's crest in the centre and the helmet of an esquire, surrounded by smaller bosses. The ceiling is a superlative late 15th-century arch-braced roof of oak and chestnut, spanning eight by four bays and repainted in 1966. Four-centred arches run in all directions, with ribs, rafters and bosses filling the interstices. The arches terminate in octagonal pendants and rest on octagonal stone corbels to the walls. The arches feature cutaway trefoil decoration. Above the windows are bands of quatrefoil decoration with crenellations above. A first-floor gallery to the south, added by Walter Godfrey, has six roll-moulded panels and wooden balustrading.

Crosby Hall had a significant historical life. Built in 1466 by Sir John Crosby, it was occupied by Richard, Duke of Gloucester in 1483. Thomas More was a tenant in 1523–24, and in 1547 William Roper, his son-in-law, took a lease. Sir Walter Raleigh had lodgings there in 1601. Between 1609 and 1671 it was owned by the Earl of Northampton, and from 1621 to 1638 it served as the headquarters of the East India Company. After a disastrous fire in 1672, only the Great Hall and Parlour wing survived. The building subsequently became first a Presbyterian Meeting House and then a warehouse with an inserted floor. This is the only example of a medieval City merchant house that survives in London, though fragmentary and not on its original site.