Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3183SW PENTONVILLE ROAD
635-1/64/683 (North side)
29/09/72 No.44A
Claremont Hall and attached
forecourt walls, railings and
gatepiers
(Formerly Listed as:
PENTONVILLE ROAD
Claremont Hall)

GV II

Also known as: Nesor Showrooms PENTONVILLE ROAD.
Former non-conformist chapel (Claremont Chapel), later
non-conformist mission (Claremont Hall); now commercial
showrooms. Set back from Pentonville Road. 1819. Architect not
certain; possibly Andrew or John Blyth, or John or William
Wallen; for Thomas Wilson, patron. Front elevation is result
of successive alterations: 1854: front terrace (largely
destroyed) by Henry Owen; 1860: alterations by Mr. Tarry;
c.1902 further alterations. Stock bricks with stucco front
elevation (probably stuccoed mid C19), including vermiculated
rusticated ground-floor dado, rusticated block dressings and
quoins. Rectangular plan. Neo-classical style. Two storeys
approached by full-width steps (widened C20) with stucco
balustrade to ends, basement. 3-window range with symmetrical
facade and projecting central pedimented bay. Ground-floor
prostyle Ionic portico with paired columns to central
architraved doorway with double C20 doors and 11-paned
rectangular overlight; round-arched architraved and keystoned
flanking side entrances (probably altered C20) with paterae,
console-bracketed open pediments, multi-paned fanlights, wide
panelled corniced-heads and panelled doors. Round-arched,
architraved 1st-floor 3/3 sashes with curved, wavy and radial
glazing bars, double margin lights, console-bracketed egg and
dart cornice, and small brackets to sills. Entablature with
foliated scrolled frieze panels in low relief to outer bays,
centre bay frieze inscribed 'CLAREMONT', egg and dart and
modillioned cornice and blocking course. Left return has 3
round-arched sashes on the upper level; rear extension.
Attached stucco walls to sides of forecourt; Neo-classical
style cast-iron railings and fine cast and wrought-iron gate
piers to front.
INTERIOR: : originally had an oval gallery running all round
the chapel; this was truncated in 1860 when other alterations
were carried out by Mr. Tarry; most of interior greatly
altered including the insertion of a mezzanine floor to chapel
space c.1970; original wooden handrail to front interior
staircase survives. History: the building of the chapel was
financed by Thomas Wilson for the Congregationalists in 1819;
he had also assisted in building Paddington Chapel and Craven
Chapel. Claremont Chapel was closed in 1899 and disused until
the present mission, London Congregational Union, was set up
in 1902; in recent years the mission has let the chapel for
use as showrooms. 1990 undergoing extensive exterior work and
interior alterations. Probably the most ambitious and
architecturally significant non-conformist chapel of the early
C19 in the Borough of Islington inspite of altered interior.
In the basement is a natural spring, said to have been used to
provide drinking water for cattle kept on the site for market
prior to the building of the chapel.
(Survey of Non-conformist Churches and Chapels in Greater
London: Report by Philip Temple for English Heritage:
Islington Chapels: London: 1989-1989: 1-2/PENTONVILLE RD.).

Listing NGR: TQ3129383173

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26503344

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)