University House, University Of East London (West Ham Precinct)

University House, part of the University of East London (West Ham Precinct), is a former combined college, library, and museum building constructed between 1895 and 1898 by J G S Gibson and S B Russell, with sculpture by W Binnie Rhind. It is a building of group value. The building is an ambitious and distinguished example of the Free Classical style, with a distinctive emphasis on Art Nouveau design.

The primary range fronts onto Romford Road and is nine bays wide and two storeys high. The ground floor has segmental window openings with rusticated stone architraves and keystones. A round arched entrance features a large semi-circular head supported by enriched consoles and female kneeling figures. A deeply carved frieze runs between the storeys, and an order of engaged columns rises through the first floor to support an enriched entablature to the eaves cornice. Elaborate lead gutters are above. The upper part of each bay is divided by a smaller order of engaged columns to create windows with leaded lights. Square, battered brick terminal towers project from the main range, each topped with a shallow domed stone head and a single semicircular pedimented niche containing a carved figure. Concave-sided pavilion roofs with stone and ironwork balustrades, surmounted by cupolas with Art Nouveau finials and buttresses, crown the end gables.

Flanking the main range are two-storey, three-bay pavilions with stone rustications and semicircular open pediments topped by an obelisk and housing finely carved figures. The Museum, to the right and set forward from the main college facade, has broken semicircular open pediments to the west and south, a central entrance featuring a bronze relief sculpture, and a cupola. The Library faces Water Lane, with three semicircular pediments and a shallow domed tower over the entrance to the left.

The interiors of the library and museum remain largely complete. The library’s main space features a decorative barrel roof and fine coloured plaster reliefs to the east and west, along with surviving glass screens and bookshelves. The museum contains a fine, galleried space topped with a dome and central lighting. The interior of the college itself has not been inspected. Wrought iron railings, in an Art Nouveau style, are set on brick and stone piers and surround the entire property.

The building was formerly known as West Ham Precinct of the North-East London Polytechnic and West Ham College of Technology, Central Library and Museum.