Former St Patrick's Schools, 24 Great Chapel Street

Summary

The former St Patrick’s Schools, Soho, a Catholic school building constructed in 1887-1888.

Reasons for Designation

The former St Patrick’s Schools, Soho, City of Westminster, a Roman Catholic school building constructed in 1887-1888, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* established in 1803, St Patrick’s schools were the first to serve the Catholic Irish community in Soho and St Giles, London’s earliest area of Irish settlement;
* the purpose-built school reflects the expansion of the immigrant Irish population in the years of the Famine;
* as an expression of the Roman Catholic church’s desire to provide denominational education in the face of competition from the non-denominational Board Schools erected following the 1870 Education Act;
* for its association with St Patrick’s church, first founded for an Irish congregation in Soho in the wake of the Catholic Relief Act, 1791.

Architectural interest:

* as a complete, if plain, example of a large 1880s inner London school building, with a distinct architectural character, making effective and economical use of a restricted site;
* for the lettered terracotta frieze bearing the school’s name enriched with shamrocks and Celtic crosses, and the decorative window mullions with shamrock terminals, emblematic of the school’s Irish connections – a rare example of a building purpose-built to serve an Irish community in England in which this association is clearly inscribed within the fabric;
* for the survival of the rooftop playground, with its original cage;
* for the legibility of the internal plan-form, and retention of simple Gothic chimneypieces, glazed brick walling, and two utilitarian staircases with iron balustrades.

Group value:

* the school has a strong historical and functional relationship with the Roman Catholic Church of St Patrick, Soho Square (Grade II*) and group value with the neighbouring former Henry Heath’s hat factory, also of 1887-1888, listed at Grade II, together with its related shop on Oxford Street.

History

Soho has a long association with Roman Catholicism: the presence of several embassies in the C18 legitimised the opening of Catholic chapels, beginning in 1723 with that of the Portuguese Ambassador at 23-24 Golden Square. That site was acquired in 1788 by the Bishop of London, Bishop Talbot, for a new Catholic church; the present church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory in Warwick Street was designed by Joseph Bonomi opened in 1790. The Roman Catholic parish of St Patrick’s traces its origins to 1791, the year of the Catholic Relief Act, which permitted the practice of Catholicism, as well as the establishment of Catholic schools; in this year a ‘Confraternity of St Patrick’ was founded by the Irish priest Arthur O’Leary, a celebrated but controversial advocate of religious toleration. In 1792 a chapel was consecrated in Sutton Street, within part of the former Carlisle House. The second Catholic church in Soho, this was the first church in England dedicated to Ireland’s patron saint, and from early on the building was intended to serve the Irish community in Soho and St Giles – London’s first and largest Irish settlement.

Immigration from Ireland swelled as a consequence of the Great Famine of 1845-1852; census returns for 1851 show the Irish-born population of London as reaching its peak of 109,000 at that date, 4.5 per cent of all Londoners. The Roman Catholic Church was placed under increased pressure to provide for its community nationally, particularly in the area of education; the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 had marked the start of a reduction in anti-Catholic measures as affecting individuals’ rights, but had no effect on the provision of religious education, which at that time was provided largely by church authorities. The Catholic Poor School Committee was formed in 1847 to increase and improve the provision of elementary education, negotiating for grants with the Committee of Council on Education (from 1856 the Department of Education) for the building and support of schools; the Committee’s annual reports show an increase in the number of Catholic schools recorded in London from 10 in 1848 to 52 in 1870 and 62 in 1887. The 1870 Elementary Education Act empowered school boards to create new schools, where church provision was inadequate and in 1880 education became compulsory for children until the age of ten. The education provided by the board schools was non-denominational, and Anglican, Roman Catholic and Methodist churches were spurred to greater efforts to provide schools founded on religious principles. From the 1870s onwards the Irish Home Rule issue and other factors intensified anti-Irish feeling in London, which in turn encouraged the Catholic church to demonstrate its commitment to teaching as a socially valuable activity, building and re-building numerous schools.

The earliest schools attached to St Patrick’s Church opened in Frith Street in 1803 and moved to Denmark Street soon after; the schools were intended to serve the local Irish poor of both sexes. Other premises were used before the pupils were brought together in Tudor Place, off Tottenham Court Road, in about 1833. An 1823 report noted that ‘St Patrick’s Schools educated the whole Catholic population of London west of a line running north and south of Fleet Market’ (quoted in The Tablet, 2 July 1887). With the expiration of the lease at Tudor Place, the freehold site in Great Chapel Street was secured; the memorial stone was laid in July 1887, and the building, dedicated to Father O’Leary and other former priests of the parish, opened on 13 February 1888. The new building was estimated to cost nearly £8,000. Accommodation was provided for 741 children, and the schools (for boys, girls and infants) were described as being ‘fitted up with all the appliances of modern education’; it was noted that the schools were under government inspection, allowing them to benefit from government grants. An inspection in 1889 commented very favourably on all three schools.

Shortly after the completion of the schools the parish undertook the rebuilding of the church of St Patrick, the architect being John Kelly of the Leeds-based practice Kelly and Birchall, whose commissions included a number of other Catholic churches; the Soho Square church of 1891-1893, a short distance to the east of the school, is listed at Grade II*. There is no evidence connecting the firm with the design of the school.

Towards the end of the C19 new waves of immigrants from Continental Europe, particularly Italians, arrived in Soho and came to worship at St Patrick's Church. Italian children are known to have been educated at the school: the church contains an early-C20 sculpture by Anton Dapre said to depict two Italian boys from St Patrick's School, holding a model of the church. A plan drawn for the London County Council in 1931 shows the use of the different areas of the building at that time, with infants on the ground floor, and mixed boys’ and girls’ accommodation on the upper floors. At that time the total number of pupils was 292.

Soho’s resident population decreased markedly during the later C20, and in 1967, the school moved to Holmes Road, Kentish Town. The building then served as a language school teaching English, run by the church. In more recent years, the building has been in use as an independent English language college.

Details

Former Roman Catholic school, built in 1887-1888.

MATERIALS: stock brick, with red-brick dressings – including window arches, and narrow brick banding – and terracotta details. The basement and ground floors are now painted. The window openings contain timber sash frames, the majority thought to be original.

PLAN: the building is roughly rectangular on plan, occupying a corner site at the junction of Great Chapel Street and Hollen Street, with the longer, eastern, side fronting Great Chapel Street, the corner being rounded. A WC range projects from the north-west corner, with a light-well to the south, and a smaller light-well further south.

EXTERIOR: the building has a somewhat industrial character, particularly to the southern end, in keeping with its late-C19 neighbours. It is arranged over three storeys, with basement, and has a rooftop playground. The principal elevation, to Great Chapel Street, is divided into seven unequal bays, with entrances to the north and south. The cambered-arched entrance openings are formed of moulded brick with modest Gothic detailing; above each, a protective drip mould survives but terracotta lettering announcing the purpose of the doorway has been removed: a photograph of 1958 shows the word ‘BOYS’ beginning the inscription above the southern entrance, and above the northern doorway the trace of the word ‘INFANTS’ is just discernible; it seems likely therefore that the arrangement of the school followed a common pattern, with boys entering at one location and girls and infants at another. The four central bays are recessed between brick piers, with a corbel course of moulded brick to the recessed sections; these contain cambered-arched openings holding paired windows, the arches formed of three rows of red-brick headers. On the ground and first floors, the mullions have trefoil-shaped terminals, referencing the shamrock of St Patrick. On the second floor, the mullions are fronted by slender cast-iron piers. In the northernmost bay, there is a tall stair window above the entrance, with a keyed oculus above that. Below the second-floor windows is a frieze of terracotta panels bearing the words ‘SAINT PATRICK’S SCHOOLS SOHO’ in a form of Tuscan-style lettering with shamrock and Celtic cross enrichment. There is a blank frieze beneath the first-floor windows. At first-floor level, a stone tablet is set into the central brick pier, bearing the inscription ‘THIS MEMORIAL STONE WAS LAID BY REV L.G. VERE ON 6TH JULY 1887 / ST PATRICK’S SCHOOLS WERE FOUNDED IN 1803’. The shorter southern elevation, to Hollen Street, is plainer, this frontage being in a single plane, relieved by the brick banding, with five unmullioned windows to each floor. There is an unadorned access opening to the west at street level. The elevations are linked by the rounded corner, with a projecting stair turret/chimney rising above eaves level, enlivened by brick banding, a shallow corbel table and a stepped brick cornice. The light wells on the western side of the building are lined with glazed brick; the WC tower has rows of tall narrow windows and the wall opposite has tripartite windows with shamrock mullions.

The eastern part of the roof is enclosed by a cage, formed of wire-covered cast-iron trusses. Across the northern end of the roof is a narrow structure housing the northern stair, with a pitched roof to the west, a central door opening to the playground, and a dormer to the east. Within the southern part of the playground, a temporary structure has been erected for use as a café seating area; this structure is excluded from the listing. To the south-east is a small structure, thought to be early-C20, with a hipped roof supported by metal trusses, and recent wooden casement windows, now in use a servery; this structure is also excluded from the listing.

INTERIOR: on each floor, the original layout appears to have consisted of a large schoolroom to the north – the space probably intended to be subdivided as necessary – with classrooms for group teaching to the south. The building appears to have been arranged to accommodate infants on the ground floor, girls on the first floor and boys on the second floor; the basement may have provided additional space for the infants’ school, or been in use for another purpose. On each floor there is a room to the west, between the light wells, which appears to have been for staff use; in the basement this is now a boiler room. There has been reconfiguration on each floor, with insertion of partitions, and some more substantial changes.

Throughout the school, windows are set high within teaching areas to limit distraction; mullions have the shamrock terminal internally, and there are chamfered window arches and moulded window cills. Floors in some areas retain woodblock flooring or floorboards, covered or replaced in other areas. The concrete floor slabs are supported by steel girders, visible in places. The walls were originally lined with glazed brick to window level, this is now painted in places and covered in others. The majority of fireplaces lack their chimneypieces, though three examples are known to survive – all of very simple design, with minimal Gothic chamfered detailing; the openings are mostly blocked or covered. A small number of original doors survive.

The entrances hold modern divided doors, which open to staircases, the former boys’ stair to the south and the former girls’ stair to the north. The design of the narrow staircases is utilitarian; the treads are now covered as is the glazed-brick dado; cast-iron balustrades survive, the handrails having knobs to discourage children from sliding. Above second-floor level, stairs with plain timber balustrades give access to the playground; some panelling survives to the boys’ stair at this level.

The large former schoolrooms remain legible, with woodblock flooring, though only that on the first floor remains as a single space, and there a mezzanine floor has been inserted within part of the area. This mezzanine structure is excluded from the listing. On the second floor, the schoolroom space has been divided into rooms and a corridor, the glazed brick walling remaining uncovered in what is now the northernmost room, though now painted. Two stone hearths remain in the second-floor schoolroom area; there is a single one on the ground floor. In the basement, a large chimneypiece survives in the former schoolroom, fitted with a register grate with Arts and Crafts-style tiles, the grate possibly a later insertion.

The southern classrooms have seen a considerable degree of reconfiguration, with varying degrees of survival, though in the basement the rooms retain their original proportions. Here both rooms have chimneybreasts, the openings now blocked, and glazed arches along the eastern and southern extremities of the building reveal shallow wells or walkways, lit by pavement lights. On each floor the western room, between the light wells, shows evidence of having had a fireplace; chimneypieces survive on the first and second floors.

The WC tower remains in its original use, the rooms lined with painted glazed brick; no original fittings survive.

Sources

Books and journals
S, Bradley, N, Pevsner, Buildings of England, London 6: Westminster (2003), 434
St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Soho Square (nd),
Preston, R, Saint, A, St Giles-in-the-Fields: The History of a London Parish (2024), 235-244

Websites
Photograph of St Patrick Roman Catholic School, dated 1958, accessed 9 May 2024 from https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=193214&WINID=1719923584834
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Arthur O'Leary, accessed 9 May 2024 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/20700
Survey of London: 'General Introduction: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho (1966), accessed 9 May 2024 from 'General Introduction', Survey of London: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho, (London, 1966), pp. 1-19. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp1-19
Walter Thornbury, 'Soho Square and its Neighbourhood', Old and New London (1878), accessed 9 May 2024 from Walter Thornbury, 'Soho Square and its neighbourhood', Old and New London: Volume 3, (London, 1878), pp. 184-196. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol3/pp184-196
Survey of London: Dean Street Area: Portland Estate, Great Chapel Street (1966), accessed 9 May 2024 from 'Dean Street Area: Portland Estate, Great Chapel Street', Survey of London: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho, (London, 1966), pp. 149-150. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp149-150
Survey of London: Soho Square Area, Portland Estate, Carlisle House, Soho Square (1966), accessed 9 May 2024 from 'Soho Square Area: Portland Estate, Carlisle House, Soho Square', Survey of London: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho, (London, 1966), pp. 73-79. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp73-79
A Marcantonio et al, St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, accessed 26 June 2024 from https://assets.website-files.com/5fbcd37fb82f65118fc41d87/60c77377f20c3417c486329e_St%20Patricks%20History%20Booklet-min.pdf

Other
London County Council, School Plans, 1931
The Tablet, 2 July 1887, 8 August 1891

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