Brentford and Isleworth Quaker Meeting House, Hounslow, London

Summary

Quaker Meeting House built in 1785 with repairs and alterations in the early C19. A classroom was added and other internal alterations were made in 1958 by the architect Hubert Lidbetter. Kitchen and toilets were added in 1982.

Description

Quaker Meeting House built in 1785 with repairs and alterations in the early C19; the front elevation was largely rebuilt after the Second World War. A classroom was added and other internal alterations were made in 1958 by the architect Hubert Lidbetter. Kitchen and toilets were added in 1982.

MATERIALS: walls are of brown brick with Bath stone corbels, red brick window arches and a slate roof.

PLAN: L-shaped plan. The original meeting house was rectangular with extensions to the south and the west added in the C20.

EXTERIOR: the meeting house of 1785 was originally a rectangular plan comprising a large double-height space for the main meeting room, and a smaller two-storey area with a stair to a gallery. A single-storey classroom was added in 1958 and there were further adaptations in 1982.

The meeting house is built of brick laid in Flemish bond with gable ends which rise from Bath stone corbels. The main elevation faces east where the main entrance has double doors, each of three flush-beaded panels, and a stone hood on brackets inscribed ‘11 4 Mo 1785’. To the south is a replacement six-pane-over-six sash window with a gauged brick arch and shutters with shutter hooks. On the first floor to the south are two arched window openings, one blind and one glazed, with shutters. To the north are three tall arched window openings which are blind with a central sash window with shutters. Above, the eaves have brick dentils. This elevation has been much rebuilt after wartime bomb damage, with the change in brickwork clear at the north-east corner.

The north elevation has an oculus for roof ventilation in the gable, while the west elevation has three round-headed windows with glazing bar sashes. The south elevation has two multi-pane sashes to the first floor and one to the attic, all with flat gauged brick arches.

The C20 additions to the south and west are single-storey, of brick, with a slate pitched roof, with traditional joinery and glazing bar sash windows.

INTERIOR: the main entrance leads into a lobby with a stair leading up to the gallery. There is a blocked fireplace with plain surround to the gallery; at ground-floor level the chimney breast has been truncated for access to the classroom. The meeting room has double doors and a perimeter dado panelling which sweeps up around the raised elders’ stand. The room has a light oak woodblock floor and the walls and flat ceiling are plastered, above this is a king-post roof structure. At high level on the south side are full-width vertically-sliding shutters. Three windows on the west side and one on the east have been fitted with secondary glazing. Below, there is fixed seating on three sides and in the elders’ stand, which is raised by three steps and has a panelled front. On either side are short flights of stairs, each with turned newels of late C18 character.

The C20 additions to the south and west house the classroom, play area, kitchen and toilets.

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.

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. The work of the prolific Hubert Lidbetter, longtime Surveyor to the Six Weeks Meeting, demonstrates a range from the solid Classicism of Friends House, London (1924-27) to the more contemporary style of the Sheffield meeting house of 1964 (now in alternative use). In the post-war period, a small number of Quaker buildings in more emphatically modern styles were built; examples include the meeting house at Heswall, Merseyside, 1963 by Beech and Thomas, and buildings by Trevor Dannatt, of which the Blackheath Quaker Meeting House is one.

The first records of a Brentford meeting date from 1659 when they were held at the house of John Woolrich and from 1706 a barn in Old Brentford was used. It was not until 1785 that the present building, Brentford and Isleworth Quaker Meeting House, was constructed on a site bought in the previous year from Benjamin Angell, a wealthy Quaker. A burial ground was also created.

Over time, repairs and alterations were made to the meeting house. In the early C19 alterations were made to the meeting house to make it ‘more commodious’ and a library was established and the burial ground extended. The meeting house suffered bomb damage in 1940 and the main elevation was restored after. A classroom was added and other internal alterations were made in 1958 by the architect Hubert Lidbetter, with Bernard McGeoghegan, an interior designer, being largely responsible for the planning. In 1982, WCs, a kitchen and a new pitched roof over the schoolroom were installed. More recently, secondary glazing has been installed in the meeting room.

There is a large burial ground, still in use, mainly to the south but also to the north and east of the meeting house, and containing a large number of burials marked by headstones from 1850 onwards. The burial ground has a brick boundary wall which is contemporary with the meeting house. The burial ground appeared to have continued to the London Road frontage according to the OS map of 1961 but in 1978 the front part was developed with nine dwellings called Angell House.

Reasons for Listing

Brentford and Isleworth Quaker Meeting House built in 1785 with later additions is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as one of the oldest purpose-built Quaker meeting houses in London;

* embodying the modest simplicity of Quaker meeting houses, the external structure, built in the late C18, retains much of its original character and fabric;

* the main meeting room interior includes distinctive features illustrative of its use including the vertically-sliding shutters and elders’ stand with panelled front and dado flanked by steps, reflecting the congregation’s historic mode of worship.

Historic interest:

* providing evidence of the development of the meeting house type responding to the needs of the meeting over time with a library established in 1829 and a classroom in 1958;

* for its association with the contemporary burial ground and boundary wall.

External Links

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