Tredegar House

Tredegar House, 97-99 Bow Road

A former training home for pupil probationers, built in 1911 by Rowland Plumbe, the Hospital Surveyor for the London Hospital. The building was converted to flats in the late 20th century by David Wood Architects.

The house is set back from Bow Road behind an original forecourt with surviving brick and stone gate piers, railings and iron overhang. It is a substantial building of five bays and four storeys with a raised basement and hipped attic roof crowned with tall brick chimneys. The style is Wrenaissance, reviving the architecture of the second half of the 17th century, expressed through brick quoins, a stone dentil cornice, timber sash windows, and dormers with alternating triangular and segmental pediments.

The most striking feature is the projecting stone centrepiece on the ground floor, which frames mullion and transom windows and a central entrance. The entrance has a broken segmental pediment, paired Ionic columns, a decorative cartouche and lettering reading 'Tredegar House'. The windows of the central bay on the upper storeys also have stone surrounds, with the top floor window opening onto an iron balcony supported by stone console brackets. The façade is predominantly red brick with accents of blue brick. The quality of craftsmanship throughout is high, evident in the fine stone carving and gauged brick arches over the windows, some segmental and some flat. The rear elevation is plainer but maintains the same good quality of materials and workmanship.

The gardens contain a summer house in matching style and materials, along with garden walls, paths and an iron overhang. Original railings and gates survive around the forecourt.

The interior retains significant original features. The front doors, now with modern blue cross-patterned glass, open into a vestibule and a large entrance hall with four Composite columns at its corners and an attractive terrazzo floor. A plaque commemorates the opening in 1912. The main staircase has its original timber handrail and metal balustrade with terrazzo floors. Original cast iron fire surrounds survive in at least one flat, and two rear flats, formerly the dining room and lecture room, retain their original large skylights.

The building has a significant history in nursing education. In 1896, Eva Lückes, Matron of the London Hospital, established a pioneering seven-week preliminary training course for nurses. The course was distinctive in combining lectures, practical work and an examination, and covered anatomy, physiology, bacteriology, hygiene, practical nursing skills such as reading temperatures and bandaging, and housekeeping duties. Twenty-eight probationers were admitted at a time. The training allowed probationers to "pause on the threshold" before committing to ward work and ensured the hospital had dedicated, competent staff. Edith Cavell took the course in 1901. The original Tredegar House, a Georgian building on Bow Road, had been donated to the hospital by Lord Tredegar. By 1905, the nursing training programme was generating around £1,700 per year profit for the hospital, as trainee nurses cared for paying invalids. The decision to rebuild Tredegar House was made in 1911. Rowland Plumbe contributed £5,000 to the cost alongside other donors. Original plans from February 1911 survive, showing the building originally contained a lecture room, dining room, sitting room, a large "practical classroom" for probationers, bedrooms for thirty probationers and bed-sitting rooms for the sisters. The principal rooms had parquet flooring, picture rails and cornices, elements which may survive within the current conversion. The rebuilt Tredegar House was opened by Queen Alexandra in July 1912.