Cabmen's Shelter, Northumberland Avenue

Cabmen’s shelter built 1915 to replace the original 1882 Maximilian Clarke ‘ornamental’ shelter design for the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund at Northumberland Avenue.

MATERIALS: oak frame with deal cladding, painted green.

PLAN: rectangular footprint, with open-plan galley kitchen and communal cabmen’s mess section with benches set against the walls.

EXTERIOR: shelter of seven framed bays with three end bays, set on an elevated platform. The posts and rails of the timber frame are expressed with panels of vertical boarding set between. The entrance door is on the north side with a central serving window from the kitchen galley to the west end. Square-headed, six-light windows with glazing bars and pivoting hopper lights above (all with replacement frosted plastic glazing) are distributed evenly along both sides of the shelter; two sets to the entrance side flanking the entrance and a trio on the opposing side, of which the western pair have been painted over. The east end has a central window, matching those to the side elevations. Fretwork panels bearing the ‘CSM’ monogram embellished with ribboned garlands are set below the eaves course, positioned alternately between window bays on the sides of the shelter. The roof is half-hipped and has overhanging eaves with exposed joists. Gablets with decorative fretwork panels are set to the ends and to each side, and a square, louvered ventilation lantern flanked by a pair of ornamental dormers (also with fretwork panels) in the centre of the ridge is capped with a tented rooflet.

INTERIOR: fittings are mostly modern, although the basic arrangement of a galley kitchen and serving hatch with a cabmen’s communal section at the opposing end is still in evidence. Replacement bench tops and seating feature in the cabmen’s mess section. A hatch to the ventilation lantern is retained in the centre of the suspended ceiling.