Nazareth House

Nazareth House on Richmond Road, Isleworth, is a Grade II listed building comprising a main residence of 1832 with a chapel extension added in 1901.

The house was designed by Edward Blore for Sir William Cooper, physician to George III, who had married into the wealthy Anglo-Jewish Franks family, former owners of the estate. The Poor Sisters of Nazareth acquired the property in 1892 and commissioned the chapel extension; an application for this work was submitted to Heston and Isleworth UDC in May 1901.

The house itself displays classical-Italianate architecture rendered and painted. The west (entrance) front consists of six bays with a single bay continuation to the north, rising three storeys. A projecting square entrance porch off-centre features a door surround flanked by pairs of pilasters, with windows to its sides and a parapet above. The ground floor has channelled rustication and 6/6 pane sashes with blind boxes. The first floor retains 6/6 pane sashes; the outer bays are plain whilst the inner five bays have balustraded balconies and pediments above. The second floor windows have been altered. A heavy moulded cornice and parapet run across the facade with moulded window surrounds throughout.

The east (river) elevation features a pair of projecting three-light three-storey segmental bays with balconies to the first floor, and a central single-window bay also with a balcony and pediment to the first floor. Channelled rustication continues to the ground floor here, with French windows. Two narrow flat-arched windows appear in a wing set back to the left, and a modified campanile sits set back to the right, its top storey stuccoed with a triple blank arcade to each face beneath a deep eaves cornice.

The interior survives with extensive high-quality Greek Revival fittings. An imperial staircase features ornate cast iron railings, with a screen of grey scagliola Ionic columns below and a plaster ceiling above. Door surrounds incorporate paterae. Rooms along the ground floor east front retain elaborate plasterwork with acanthus leaf coving and egg-and-dart enrichment, though some subdivision has occurred. Several polished limestone chimneypieces remain on the ground floor. Two principal rooms to the first floor retain elaborate plaster ceilings. A servants' stair to the north has plain posts.

A contemporary service range adjoins to the north-west, consisting of two storeys of rendered brick with slate roof. A stable courtyard to the north features a clock turret above a shallow hipped roof.

The 1901 chapel extension, designed by Pugin and Pugin, adjoins to the west and comprises red brick with Bath stone facing. A two-storey chapel in L-shaped plan connects to the main house via a link structure. The chapel has a steeply pitched and crested roof of green slate with windows featuring painted stone surrounds and mullions. The entrance to the chapel from the north has a small arched door set within a niche containing a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Two-light moulded and hooded windows stand to the right of the entrance; a blocked arch to the left formerly provided access via a now-removed staircase. An elaborate round window sits within the gable, topped by a cross finial. Side elevations display segmental-arched windows to ground floors (since replaced) and arched two-light windows between buttresses with quatrefoils to the first floor, featuring drip mould with carved head label-stops. The south end of the chapel contains a niche with a statue and a semi-circular window with four quatrefoils over a corbel table. The transept link has paired cusped windows to the first floor and a round window with quatrefoils to its gabled return.

The chapel interior comprises an eight-bay space on the first floor with a gallery at the north end and sanctuary at the south end. An open wooden queen post trussed roof sits on moulded brackets. A marble High Altar features coloured marble colonnettes and insets, with stained glass windows at the south end. A triple arcade to the south of the sanctuary leads to the nuns' choir. The ground floor was formerly used as a dormitory and infirmary.

Nazareth House forms a group with its gatehouse, front entrance gate and gatepost.