Description

TQ2983SW
798-1/83/284

CAMDEN
CROWNDALE ROAD (north side)
Nos. 44 and 46, Working men's college and attached railings, wall and piers

14/05/74

GV
II
College. 1904-1906. By W.D Caröe. Red brick with stone dressings. Slate mansard roof with dormers.Tall brick chimney with louvred lantern (fume extract from chemistry laboratory). Asymmetrical facade in British Free Style.

EXTERIOR: two storeys, attic storey and semi-basement. Sixteen windows and eight window return to Camden Street. Main entrance to right with stone portico having Ionic half columns carrying entablature and segmental pediment with enriched tympanum. All windows with fine gauged brick arches to flush sashes with keystones, glazing bars giving impression of transoms and mullions. Semi-basement, segmental-arched; ground and first floor, mostly flat arched. Plain brick band at ground floor level. Asymmetrically set feature of four windows flanked by brick Doric pilasters carrying entablature (with words 'WORKING MEN'S COLLEGE' in frieze) and pediment with large lunette in the tympanum. To left, bowed bay of three windows rising from semi-basement to eaves and terminating in cornice and parapet. Dormers with alternating segmental and triangular pediments. Gable end of right hand return with Free Style segmental-arched projection having round-arched windows with margin glazing on three sides being a recess to the library. Letters in tympanum read 'FOUNDED 1854'. Return with entrance having moulded stone surround and keystone. Similar sashes to main front; top storey with round-arched windows and large lunette to right hand gabled bay, indicating the library on this floor.

INTERIOR: entrance hall with staircase beyond and corridor to right leading to large Common Room; this with panelled dado and moulded plaster ceilings including national emblems. Two eighteenth-century marble fire surrounds from Great Ormond Street where Working Men's College founded: at west end of yellow and white marble with Ionic columns supporting entablature having central plaque with carved marble flowers; at east end a simple white marble surround with coloured marble inlay.

Camden Street wing, ground floor, has main hall with stage, proscenium and panelling. First floor Library has barrel vaulted ceiling with glazed panel top lighting; five arcaded bays with arch at south end into recess; oak panelling and bookcases. Oak mantelpiece above marble fire surround. Bronze plaque above to Robert Henry Marks 1912. Marble head in recessed roundel by Alexander Munro to right of fireplace. Top storey: art studio with portrait of Lionel Jacob, 1910, set in oak panelling; shallow vaulted ceiling. Science laboratory with original fitted benches. In the basement the gymnasium, originally for boxing.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings on brick sleeper wall with brick piers.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the Working Men's College was founded 1854 in Great Ormond Street by Rev. F D Maurice, John Ruskin and others to offer non-vocational studies in humanities, history, theology and natural sciences within a collegiate community. Social facilities and gymnasium were key features of its accommodation as much as classrooms, laboratory and library. Art, taught by Ruskin, Rossetti and others was important in the early years and has remained a strong tradition.

Listing NGR: TQ2937883461

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Working Men's College at Wikipedia
• Working Men's College official website
• Wikidata Q8034933

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)