Hoddesdon Quaker Meeting House, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire

Summary

Quaker Meeting House. Built in 1828 to the design of William Alderson, with later alterations.

Description

Quaker Meeting House. Built in 1828 to the design of William Alderson, with later alterations.

MATERIALS: yellow bricks laid to Flemish bond with moulded stone dressings, and slate roof coverings to the pitched roof.

PLAN: the meeting house is rectangular on plan with a pitched roof, with single-storey flat-roofed wings flanking the entrance to main (north) front. The east wing is one bay deep, whilst the west wing is two bays deep including the link built in 1978.

EXTERIOR: the meeting house stands in the Quaker burial ground on Lord Street, oriented north-south. The main (north) front comprises three bays under a brick and moulded stone pediment. The main entrance is to the centre bay, approached up a short flight of two stone steps with ornamental iron boot scrapers and simple iron handrails. The double-leaf entrance door is set in an architrave with an ornamental transom light, under a shallow stone hood carried on two consoles decorated with foliage carving. The entrance is flanked by a six-over-six sash window to each bay; the square-headed window openings have similarly moulded architraves as the door opening. There is a small date stone above the door. The east and west elevations each include a pair of six-over-six sash windows in their upper level, lighting the main meeting room, whilst the south elevation is blind. The pitched roof is covered with slates. The two small flat-roofed side wings flanking the north elevation include recessed blind panels with flat arches to their north fronts.

INTERIOR: the meeting house is divided into four principal spaces. To the north, a small lobby is entered from the main entrance. There are two small retiring rooms to either side of the lobby, leading into the two side wings: that to the east has been converted into a toilet, whilst that to the west leads into the link built in 1978. A double-leaf door opens from the lobby into the main meeting room. The main meeting room has a panelled timber dado, plastered walls, and a flat ceiling with plain moulded cornice. The panelling to the north wall, which reaches the height of the door opening, includes shutters between the main meeting room and the retiring rooms. The Elders’ stand on a dais occupies the full length of the south wall. It is entered up short flights of steps to the west and east ends, and incorporates two ranks of fixed benches with panelled backs and carved arm rests.

History

The Quaker movement emerged out of a period of religious and political turmoil in the mid-C17. Its main protagonist, George Fox, openly rejected traditional religious doctrine, instead promoting the theory that all people could have a direct relationship with God, without dependence on sermonising ministers, nor the necessity of consecrated places of worship. Fox, originally from Leicestershire, claimed the Holy Spirit was within each person, and from 1647 travelled the country as an itinerant preacher. 1652 was pivotal in his campaign; after a vision on Pendle Hill, Lancashire, Fox was moved to visit Firbank Fell, Cumbria, where he delivered a rousing, three-hour speech to an assembly of 1000 people, and recruited numerous converts. The Quakers, formally named the Religious Society of Friends, was thus established.

Fox asserted that no one place was holier than another, and in their early days, the new congregations often met for silent worship at outdoor locations; the use of members' houses, barns, and other secular premises followed. Persecution of Nonconformists proliferated in the period, with Quakers suffering disproportionately. The Quaker Act of 1662, and the Conventicle Act of 1664, forbade their meetings, though they continued in defiance, and a number of meeting houses date from this early period. Broad Campden, Gloucestershire, came into Quaker use in 1663 and is the earliest meeting house in Britain, although it was out of use from 1871 to 1961. The meeting house at Hertford, 1670, is the oldest to be purpose built. The Act of Toleration, passed in 1689, was one of several steps towards freedom of worship outside the established church, and thereafter meeting houses began to make their mark on the landscape.

Quaker meeting houses are generally characterised by simplicity of design, both externally and internally, reflecting the form of worship they were designed to accommodate. The earliest purpose-built meeting houses were built by local craftsmen following regional traditions and were on a domestic scale, frequently resembling vernacular houses; at the same time, a number of older buildings were converted to Quaker use. From the first, most meeting houses shared certain characteristics, containing a well-lit meeting hall with a simple arrangement of seating. In time a raised stand became common behind the bench for the Elders, so that traveling ministers could be better heard. Where possible, a meeting house would provide separate accommodation for the women’s business meetings, and early meeting houses may retain a timber screen, allowing the separation (and combination) of spaces for business and worship. In general, the meeting house will have little or no decoration or enrichment, with joinery frequently left unpainted. Ancillary buildings erected in addition to a meeting house could include stabling and covered spaces such as a gig house; caretaker’s accommodation; or a school room or adult school.

Throughout the C18 and early C19 many new meeting houses were built, or earlier buildings remodelled, with ‘polite’, Classically-informed designs appearing, reflecting architectural trends more widely. However, the buildings were generally of modest size and with minimal ornament, although examples in urban settings tended to be more architecturally ambitious. After 1800, it became more common for meeting houses to be designed by an architect or surveyor. The Victorian and Edwardian periods saw greater stylistic eclecticism, though the Gothic Revival associated with the Established Church was not embraced; on the other hand, Arts and Crafts principles had much in common with those of the Quakers, and a number of meeting houses show the influence of that movement.

The C20 saw changes in the way meeting houses were used which influenced their design and layout. In 1896 it was decided to unite men’s and women’s business, so separate rooms were no longer needed, whilst from the mid-1920s ministers were not recorded, and consequently stands were rarely provided in new buildings. Seating was therefore rearranged without reference to the stand, with moveable chairs set in concentric circles becoming the norm in smaller meeting houses. By the interwar years, there was a shift towards more flexible internal planning, together with the provision of additional rooms for purposes other than worship, reflecting the meeting house’s community role – the need for greater contact with other Christians and a more active contribution within the wider world had been an increasing concern since the 1890s. Traditional styles continued to be favoured, from grander Classical buildings in urban centres to local examples in domestic neo-Georgian.

Friends built their own meeting house in Hoddesdon in 1697 at a site in Marsh Lane, serving a meeting that since 1675 had hired a hall from the Black Lion Inn. The Marsh Lane meeting house was sold and in 1828 its replacement, designed by Friend William Alderson of Chelsea, was built on Lord Street, with a new burial ground to the rear.

A small meeting hall and a dwelling were built on the adjacent plot to the west in 1929. In 1978 the meeting hall was joined to the C19 meeting house via a brick-built link. The meeting was laid down in 2011 but since 2019 the meeting house is again used for worship.

William Alderson (1804-1834) was a Quaker, practising as an architect in Chelsea. He is known to have designed not only Hoddesdon meeting house but also that at Wigton (1830, Grade II) and Stoke Newington (1827-1828, demolished). Lancashire Archives has his drawings of lodges, which were not built, for Woodfold Park, Blackburn. Alderson also designed the main building at Brookfield Quaker school, Wigton (demolished), but he is known principally for St Bernard’s Hospital (1829, Grade II) (the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum, now known as Ealing Hospital).

Reasons for Listing

Hoddesdon Quaker Meeting House, situated on Lord Street, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the plain Classical design typifies the modest nature of Quaker meeting houses, and the building retains its essential historic form and character from the time of its construction;
* preserved interior fittings including the Elders’ stand, dado, and shuttered partition to the two former retiring rooms, provide evidence for the division of space and internal arrangements typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses;
* by noted Quaker architect William Alderson whose buildings include other listed meeting houses and St Bernard’s Hospital (1829, Grade II) (the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum, now known as Ealing Hospital).

Historic interest:

* a modest, purpose-built, meeting house standing in its attached burial ground, expressive of the development of the Quaker movement.

External Links

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.