Entrance Block To Thorner'S Homes, Memorial Stone And Perimeter Railings With Two Pairs Of Gatepiers (To Regent'S Park Road And Clifton Road)

Entrance Block to Thorner's Homes, Memorial Stone and Perimeter Railings with Two Pairs of Gatepiers

This is the main entrance building with clock tower to a development of almshouses built for Thorner's charity in 1932. The architect was Maurice Everett Webb (1880–1939) of the practice Aston Webb & Sons. The building is constructed in grey brick with red brick dressings that outline most features, occasional stone detailing and brick tile dressings, tiled roofs and continuous red brick plinths. The design combines Arts and Crafts principles with Neo-Georgian references in the refined brickwork, red dressings and cornices, and Neo-Tudor nods in the steep gables and pitched tiled roofs, both styles drawing on the long tradition of almshouse architecture.

The entrance block faces Regent's Park Road and comprises a handed pair of two-storey almshouses linked by a tall arch with modillion eaves cornice, a foliate keyblock and a stone plaque reading "THORNER'S HOMES 1932", all under a continuous tile roof. On each side of the central arch there is a pair of tall gabled ranges linked by balconies. Each gable has a window on each floor at its outer edges, framed with red brick dressings and capped with a slender stone cornice, with a ventilation slit in the gable's apex. Between the gables facing Regent's Park Road, there are angled exterior doors on both floors leading onto a small patio, with a wide arch at ground floor and a balcony with red brick dressings at second floor.

On the rear elevation, the wide balconies are supported by a pair of unusual columns formed of flat brick tiles, square on plan but twisted through a full 360 degrees so that they form a complete spiral along the height of the column, rising from a stone base with a stone cornice. The gables on this side are simpler, featuring tripartite, centrally-placed windows. Recessed exterior staircases serving the upper flats are also positioned on this elevation. At the centre of the roof is a large copper fleche with clock tower and miniature cupola, straddling the roof ridge and placed diagonally. The roof is furnished with a grey brick chimney with red brick dressings in the centre of each wing. The original timber windows and French doors were replaced with uPVC in 2004 in the original openings, featuring one fixed pane over top-hung opening windows.

The interior comprises two flats on each floor on either side of the central arch. They are understood to be modestly fitted out originally with later twentieth-century alterations and are not of special architectural interest.

The memorial stone stands in the central courtyard as a Portland stone memorial pier with a cornice, capped with a stone ball balanced on an open obelisk base. In serif lettering designed and inscribed by Eric Gill, it records that "A.D. 1932 These Homes were built by the Trustees of the Will of Robert Thorner who died 17th July 1690 and who lies buried in Baddesley Churchyard. The will contain'd amongst other philanthropic provisions a direction that the Testators should be mainly devoted to the buildings and maintenance of houses in Southampton for poor Widows. The Trustees of the Will also have Homes in the Polygon and formerly had some on a Site between Above Bar & and the Town Hall which was acquired by the Corporation in 1931". Other faces are blank or display more recent history of Thorner's Homes in similar typescript.

The site is bounded by iron railings on a brick plinth with periodic taller sections featuring ornate scrolled tops and a trio of urn finials. Three entrances in the railings are framed by grey brick piers with red quoins capped with stone balls.

Historical Context

This development was built in the early 1930s by Thorner's charity, established by the bequest of Robert Thorner, a wealthy Southampton merchant who died in 1690. His philanthropic legacy directed support to poor widows of the area. The first almshouse in his name was established in 1793 in the centre of Southampton. This sober, pedimented almshouse was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the grandiose new Southampton Civic Centre. Thorner's built these replacement premises on Regent's Park Road, just outside the centre of Southampton's Shirley district.

The almshouses were built around three courtyards (North Court, Centre Court and South Court), around which were arranged 15 two-storey paired houses serving the main north and south entrances. The remaining 13 almshouses are not included in this listing.

Maurice Webb took over his father Sir Aston Webb's practice after the latter's death in 1930. Maurice designed a number of notable listed buildings in the 1920s and 1930s, including the crematorium, lodge, chapels and waiting room at Camberwell New Cemetery (1928–9), the block of flats with shops at the Grampians, Hammersmith (1935–7), the depository for Bentall's department store in Kingston (1936–7), and several offices in London. A drawing of Thorner's Homes was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1933.