Refreshment room (part of the former stable block), Ravenscourt Park, Ravenscourt Park, London

Summary

Former stable block of Ravenscourt Park house, of early or mid-C18 origins, partially demolished and converted into a refreshment room in the late C19 with later additions.

Description

Former stable block of Ravenscourt Park house, of early or mid-C18 origins, partially demolished and converted into a refreshment room in the late C19 with later additions.

MATERIALS: London-stock brick with red-brick quoins and red-brick and stone dressings, with timber windows and doors, all under a hipped slate roof.

PLAN: L-shaped footprint.

EXTERIOR: a two-storey building with attic and single-storey wings to the north and east. The symmetrical front (west) elevation has a central two-window projection, which is topped by a pediment with a brick bullseye arch in the tympanum containing a painted-black clock with gilt detailing. This is flanked by single-window bays. The central double-leaf door is topped by a metal fanlight and elliptical arch, and is flanked by round-arched windows with fanlights. The other windows have segmental heads and include two ground-floor six-over-two horned sashes, and four smaller first-floor multi-panes. All of the openings on this elevation have brick surrounds and are topped by brick voussoirs; to the ground floor are also brick keystones. There are further sash and casement windows to the side and rear elevations, and also blocked first-floor bullseye arches to the rear and north elevations. The south elevation of the main range is blind and was partially rebuilt in the late-C20. The main roof and pediment have bracketed eaves and the hipped roof is topped by a zinc-clad turret topped by timber cupola and weather vane; there is a C20 light in one side of the turret. Attached to the north elevation is an early-C20 single-storey toilet wing topped by a timber lantern and an early-C21 flat roof extension. To the east is the mid-C20 flat-roof single-storey kitchen infill. Extending from the south east corner, is the late-C19 single-storey pitched-roof wing which has a variety of C19 and C20 windows. The wing has exposed brick work on its north elevation and the rendered south elevation is supported by flat buttresses; there is also flat-roof mid-C20 extension on the east end of this wing.

INTERIOR: the main ground-floor refreshment room is open-plan with a ceiling supported by a row of three cast-iron columns; the late-C19 counter and kitchen are not extant. Two doorways at the top of steps in the rear wall lead through to the C20 kitchen and store rooms. The first floor over the refreshment room is accessible via a hatch in the ceiling. The former tack room retains some timber harness racks on the walls. At the centre of this space is the late-C19 tapering octagonal base of the clock chamber which sits below the bell turret, it is constructed of timber planks and with a four-panel door and four-pane windows on two sides. Opposite are cupboards containing the mechanism for the clock on the front elevation. In one corner is the blocked doorway which gave access to the demolished external stairway. The room is topped by a king-post truss roof.

The west-end room of the rear wing has been incorporated into the late-C20 kitchen. In the middle of the wing is the former late-C19 boiler room which contains a simple corner brick fire surround. The mid-C20 east-end extension contains modern staff facilities.

To the north is the toilet block wing, the early-C20 element is lit internally by the roof lantern, the early-C21 extension is flat roofed. Inside are modern male and female toilet facilities.

The mid-C20, late-C20 and early-C21 flat-roof extensions to the building are of lesser interest.

History

Ravenscourt Park was originally the site of a medieval moated manor house known as Pallenswick or Palingswick. The estate was one of three manors in the parish of Fulham, then the property of the Bishop of London. In the C14 it became one of over 56 manors across England owned by Alice Perrers, mistress of King Edward III, and is described in a contemporary account (1377) as comprising 40 acres of land and 60 acres of pasture, with halls, chapels, stables, granges, gardens and orchards. In the mid-C18, the estate is thought to have been renamed as Raven’s Court by then owner Thomas Corbett as a pun on his coat-of-arms, which depicted a raven (corbeau in French). A plan of 1754 shows the park in roughly its present form, including walled gardens to the north, and a building in the location of the stable block to the south of the moated house. Before the last private owner, George Scott, bought the property in 1812, the previous owner John Dorville had sold off parts of the estate and filled in three sides of the moat, leaving only the western arm to form a lake. In the late C19, after the death of Scott’s widow, the Metropolitan Board of Works bought the house and estate to convert into a public park. Management of the estate soon passed into the hands of the newly formed London County Council, whose Superintendent of Parks, Lieutenant Colonel JJ Sexby laid out flower gardens, converted the stables into a refreshment room, built toilets, a bandstand and tennis courts. The park was never officially ‘opened,’ although the public were first informally allowed in on August Bank Holiday in 1888, when much work remained to be done. In 1890 Hammersmith’s first public library was opened in Ravenscourt House. The house was demolished after being struck by an incendiary bomb in January 1941.

The former stable block located on the east side of the Ravenscourt estate was built in around the early or mid-C18 and originally consisted of a central double-pile range topped by a large clock turret with a cupola and weathervane, and flanked by hipped-roofed wings. After the estate became a public park in 1888, the stable building was truncated with the demolition of the central range and west wing.

In 1890 the remaining L-shaped east wing was converted into a refreshment room. Works included the refronting of the west elevation which became the principal entrance, the addition of a portico to the front elevation, the addition of a small toilet block to the rear, the insertion of new windows, and the refurbishment of a lean-to glasshouse on the south elevation. The clock from the original stable turret was retained, refurbished and repositioned within the tympanum of the new front elevation; a smaller bell turret in the same style as the original was placed onto the roof ridge. The ground floor became an open-plan refreshment room with a counter and kitchen at one end, while the first floor, formerly the tack room, became a store room with a partitioned heated room in one corner and a clock chamber beneath the bell turret in the centre. This level was accessed by an external staircase and landing to the rear. An earlier single-storey wing to the rear was partitioned to create a boiler house and a heated room. Some of the outbuildings to the east were reused including one directly behind the refreshment building which was modified and converted into a tool shed; other outbuildings were demolished. In around the early C20 a single-storey toilet wing, topped by a roof lantern, was added to the north side of the building. In the mid-C20 the glasshouse lean-to along the south elevation and the front portico were removed. In the mid-1980s a single-storey addition was added to the rear to create a new kitchen area which led to the loss of the external stairs and earlier toilet block. At around the same time the two-storey south elevation was paritally rebuilt, resulting in the loss of the chimney and corresponding internal fireplace, as well as the windows on this elevation. In the early C21 a small flat-roof extension was added to the northern toilet wing.

Reasons for Listing

The refreshment room (part of the former stable block) in Ravenscourt Park is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as part of a former C18 stable block which retains external and internal architectural features that reflect well its original use and design;
* for the careful consideration given to the original style, details and materials in the alterations when the building was converted for public use as a refreshment room in the late C19.

Group value:
* with the nearby remains of the former walled garden and lodge, it forms a good group of C18 and C19 garden structures which are an integral part of the historic private estate, and were retained and adapted for reuse when it became a public park.

External Links

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