House Of Bethany

The House of Bethany, dating from 1874-5 with an enlargement in 1880, is a significant work by R. Norman Shaw, constructed primarily of concrete and overseen by W.H. Lascelles. The original orphanage wing, oriented east-west, is two stories high with dormers. The ground floor is concrete with stone-mullioned windows, while the first floor is tile-hung with four-light timber mullioned and transomed windows. Four large, projecting chimney breasts are located on the flanks, each featuring a small inset window and a high cruciform stack rising from a gable, topped with a brick modillion cornice. Continuous strips of dormers connect these chimney breasts, each having ten lights, two transoms, and paired hipped roofs. One chimney stack on the north side was reduced in height. The steeply pitched main roofs have a continuous ridge, while the east gable rises to four stories with a half-timbered apex supported by three moulded brackets and a central, canted oriel window also on three brackets. The narrow west gable is constructed of red brick, incorporating segment-headed relieving arches over ground floor windows, similar arches over first-floor windows, and a stone-mullioned second-floor window. Flanking this gable are hipped roof slopes with hipped dormers. A gate tower at the northwest corner is built of brick with stone dressings, standing three stories high. It features a moulded porch arch transitioning into the jambs, flanked by massive buttresses, and six-light and four-light mullioned windows above, all beneath a hipped roof with overhanging eaves and an ornamental weathervane. Attached to the tower is a two-story wing, with tile hanging on the upper floor, an entrance leading to a service yard (with an open timber bracketed ceiling), and a brick-walled visitors’ room. A chimneystack with a heavy capping rises from the ridge. Interiors were modernized following war damage. An 1880 convent wing, also two stories high with dormers, mirrors the exterior style with concrete below and tile hanging above, and prominent chimney breasts on the gable end, the southern one featuring a second-floor window recessed within a round arch in the chimney breast. Tile-hung gabled dormers have pairs of transomed windows to the cells, with glazing bars below. Ground floor windows have stone mullions and transoms. A two-story concrete gable houses the staircase on the west, while a tile-hung oriel window on the east originally served as the Sister Superior's room (now an oratory). A chapel and cloister were added in 1928-9 by William G. Newton and Partners. The chapel's altar features a sculpted panel of the Annunciation and two statues, set against a marble retable, originally the High Altar of a Chapel by Ernest Newton in 1892 or the former Mother House at Clerkenwell, London. Two angels on the west gallery and a statue of Our Lady under a pinnacled canopy by Sir Ninian Comper also originate from Clerkenwell.