Former Sons of Temperance Friendly Society Building

MATERIALS: stucco, red brick and granite to front elevation; plain stock brick to rear.

PLAN: the building, once in mid-terrace but now free-standing, comprises a four-storey front range facing Blackfriars Road and a single-storey hall behind.

EXTERIOR: architectural display is restricted to the tall Blackfriars Road elevation, which - like many buildings associated with the temperance movement - deliberately recalls a public house. The style is Edwardian 'Free Classical', with the tripartite division of the facade emphasised on the first and second floors by a giant Corinthian order. A shallow bow window with a scrolled cartouche marks the middle bay, while the window architraves to right and left have broken pediments with big triple keystones. The frieze above is inscribed ‘SONS OF TEMPERANCE FRIENDLY SOCIETY’. The low attic storey is of red brick striped with stucco, the middle bay having diminutive Ionic half-columns and a frieze inscribed ‘LONDON GRAND DIVISION’. The parapet, which sweeps up to a balustrade over the middle bay, is topped with four spiked balls. At ground level the central window and the round-arched doorways on either side have moulded keystone surrounds of polished red granite, the twin panelled doors and window joinery being of hardwood. In the window are stained-glass spandrel panels, designed to be seen from without, showing the star-in-triangle-in-circle insignia and ‘LOVE – PURITY – FIDELITY’ motto of the Sons of Temperance. The middle pane has painted lettering which reads ‘ORDER OF THE / SONS OF TEMPERANCE / REGISTERED FRIENDLY SOCIETY / LONDON GRAND DIVISION’. A clock, of later (probably mid-C20) date but also bearing the name of the organisation, projects from a bracket above.

INTERIORS: both doorways lead to small entrance lobbies whose green mosaic floors again display the Sons of Temperance insignia. The left-hand lobby, which gives access to the ground floor, contains plaques recording the establishment of the London Grand Division in 1867, the commencement of the present building in December 1909 and its grand opening twelve months later. The right-hand door leads to the stair, which has a green tiled dado, decorative iron balusters and elaborate hardwood newels with ball finials. The first floor was originally the committee room and forms a single large space with a herringbone block floor and a deeply-moulded ceiling; a board recording past Grand Worthy Patriarchs of the Order originally hung here, and still survives within the building. The topmost floor is a small flat, presumably intended for a resident caretaker, and retains two small fireplaces with decorative surrounds.

The single-storey rear block, separated from the front range by a narrow light-well, is a rectangular hall with a hipped clerestory roof supported on open timber trusses, which spring from moulded corbels set in pilasters on the side and end walls. The wood-block floor here has been replaced.