Details
ISLINGTON
TQ3182NE ST JOHN STREET
635-1/69/801 (East side)
29/09/72 College Building, City University
and attached railings
GV II
Technical institute, now part of the City University. Built as
the Northampton Institute in 1894-6 to the designs of
E.W.Mountford; the wing directly north of the tower and the
former swimming bath to the rear rebuilt in 1953-5, following
war damage, to the designs of Owen Campbell Jones. Red brick
set in English bond with stone dressings; roofs of graded
slate. The principal accent is the entrance tower in St John
Street, square in plan up to the cornice: round-arched
entrance framed by broad pilasters with decorative wrought
iron gates; a symbolic frieze carved in low relief by Horace
and Paul Raphael Montford extends over the entrance and
embraces the pilasters; open scrolled pediment above; then
three tiers of windows between pilasters, that to the first
floor single, segmental-arched with stone voussoirs breaking
through the mouldings of the archivolt, to the second floor
three narrow segmental-arched windows, to the third a lunette,
again with voussoirs breaking through the archivolt; modillion
cornice; the tower then becomes octagonal in plan with
semi-circular bays to the corners, a large clock projecting
over St John Street and stone balustrade; an open octagon,
flanked by inverted consoles, supports the lead-covered dome.
The principal elevations of 1896 run from the tower southwards
into Wyclif Street and Northampton Square: four storeys over
basement, the dormers in St John Street added; the elevations
in St John Street and the first four windows of the return in
Wyclif Street are more elabrately detailed with moulded stone
architraves to windows, sill band to ground floor, storey band
between ground and first floors, deep cornice with
egg-and-dart moulding and modillion at sill level of third
floor, and springing band above; all windows flat-arched with
9/9 sashes to ground and first floors, except that two shallow
pedimented bays of two-window range project in St John Street
and these have segmental-arched windows with stone voussoirs
breaking through the mouldings, on the ground and second
floors; two second-floor windows in Wyclif Street also of this
design. A flat-arched entrance with broken pediment links this
part with the plainer elevations in Wyclif Street: broad
round-arched windows to ground floor, segmental-arched to
first and second floor, principal cornice above first-floor
windows, secondary cornice to second floor, parapet; dormers
with segmental pediments in mansard roof. There are three
shallow, four-storey bays with segmental pediments, and at the
foot of each the round-arched windows have a moulded stone
archivolt interrupted by voussoirs. At the corner of Wyclif
Street and Northampton Square there is a re-entrant angle each
face of which has a shallow segmental portico distyle in
antis; this part of the building, and the elevation to
Northampton Square, follow the pattern of the St John Street
elevations with flat-arched windows to ground floor with
moulded stone architraves, first-floor windows mainly
round-arched with voussoirs breaking through the archivolt,
second-floor windows flat-arched again, with moulded stone
architraves, and stone banding to the brickwork.
To the north of the tower in St John Street is a wing of two
storeys over basement, five-window range, rebuilt in
1953-1955. Ground-floor windows flat-arched, first-floor
segmental arched, with chamfered brick buttresses between, the
right-hand first-floor window blank. Sculpted panels depicting
technology above first-floor windows; cornice and parapet.
The northernmost part of the building, on the corner of St
John Street and Spencer Street is wedge-shaped in plan, two
storeys leading back to a three-storey five-sided apse.
Flat-arched entrance at the corner under a shallow segmental
moulding with Gibbs surround; above, an aedicule enclosing a
round-arched niche,with blocked columns, open pediment and
prominent voussoirs to the niche.empty aedicular niche.
Ground-floor windows flat-arched, first-floor segmental-arched
with stone archivolts; parapet; roof rises to an octagon at
the corner with ogee dome and spirelet.
Area railings to St John Street and Wyclif Street with
decorative scrollwork and plain finials.
Listing NGR: TQ3162982638
