Former Battersea Polytechnic Institute

This is a former Polytechnic Institute, designed by E.W. Mountford in 1890. It is a long, symmetrical building in the Northern Renaissance style, with two storeys, an attic, and Dutch gables. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and a tiled roof. The main facade features a frontispiece with two slightly advanced, twin gabled pavilions framing the entrance. These pavilions are linked by four-bay recessed ranges. Each end pavilion is comprised of an inner, segmental bay and an outer, more projecting square bay. A Doric porch with quadrant wings and a high parapet stands at the entrance, with a balustrade over the quadrants. The entablature above the main door has a swan-neck pediment, and is flanked by sashes with high entablatures. Above the porch parapet is a round-arched first floor window framed by an Ionic aedicule. Pilaster orders run up the frontispiece and linking ranges, with bull’s-eye windows piercing them. The pilaster orders are capped by complex swan-neck pediments on the frontispiece, and culminate in aedicules with statuary on the gabled pavilions. The gabled end pavilions also have an attic order with statuary in niches. The steep-pitched roof has an open octagonal lantern, an ogival cap, and a needle spire. Extensions to the north-west and west are not included in the listing.