Kirkdale Centre, Kirkdale, Sydenham, Lewisham
1859-61 by Henry Dawson, possibly with Sir Joseph Paxton; extended 1904 by William Flockhart
Listed Grade II
"The Kirkdale Centre has its origins in the Sydenham Public Lecture Hall,
established in the late 1850s by a committee of local philanthropists including
Sir Joseph Paxton, engineer-architect of the nearby Crystal Palace. The
original design for the hall, resembling a north-Italian palazzo with twin
cupolas and extravagantly banded brickwork, was reputedly supplied by Paxton
himself, although the more modest version actually completed in 1861 was by the
young architect Henry Dawson. The Sydenham Working Men’s Association ran the
programme of evening lectures and also maintained a library and reading room;
during the daytime the building was used by the Sydenham British School. The
latter was taken over by the London School Board in 1875, and in 1904 the building
– now wholly in school use – was enlarged and remodelled by the architect
William Flockhart. Tall extensions were built on either side of the original
hall, as well as an idiosyncratic new entrance porch resembling a compressed
bell-tower, and the vibrant polychromy of the 1861 brickwork was toned down
with a coat of grey roughcast. The result is an intriguing blend of the High
Victorian and the Arts and Crafts, the combined product of mid-C19 philanthropy
and early-C20 state education."
Former Prudential Building, 187-197 Lewisham High Street, Lewisham
1908 by Paul Waterhouse
Listed Grade II
"Alfred Waterhouse’s sequence of buildings for
the Prudential Assurance Company was continued after his death by his son Paul,
to whose designs the Lewisham branch was built in 1908. Here, the Pru’s
signature palette of pink granite and flame-red brick and terracotta –
prominently displayed at Waterhouse senior’s headquarters building on Holborn –
has been carefully kept up, but the style has shifted in accordance with
contemporary taste from High Victorian Gothic to Edwardian Baroque. The
building makes dramatic use of its corner site: the entrance porch, boldly
rusticated like the rest of the lower storey, grows upward into a balustraded
niche adorned with swags of fruit and flowers, which contains a three-quarter
size figure of Prudence; in the attic above, the building’s name is displayed in
gilded lettering between the huge broken pediments that crown the flanking
wings. The interiors have been altered, but retain some original fittings
including panelled doors, armorial panels in terracotta, and the principal
staircase with its decorative iron balustrade."
You can find out more at http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/londons-historic-treasures/ and see the full list at
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