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The front of the House of St Barnabas

The House of St Barnabas as viewed from the garden

The House of St Barnabas, at 1 Greek Street, Soho, is a Grade One Listed Georgian building with one of the finest Rococo plasterwork interiors in London.

Since 1862 the House has been a charity which has supported people who have experienced homelessness. The name of the organisation was changed from the "House of Charity" to the "House of St Barnabas" in 1961. The building functioned as a hostel for women until 2006.

Having run life skills courses in the upper floors of the building and operating as a dry hire venue for a number of years to generate revenue, The club at The House of St Barnabas opened in October 2013.

The club at The House of St Barnabas

The House of St Barnabas opened as a not-for-profit private members' club in October 2013, with a drive for social change at it's heart.

The charity runs it's Employment Academy on the second floor, with participants on the twelve week course doing work experience in the club.

History

The House

In March 1679, Richard Frith and William Pym were developing Soho Square, then known as Fryths Square. A timber merchant, Cadogon Thomas of Lambeth, held a lease for a great corner house, coach house and stables. Aristocrats who lived in the Restoration House included the second Baron Crew, Lady Cavenish and the dowager Countess of Fingall but the longest residence was of William Archer MP from 1719 until 1738.

In 1746 the house was partially rebuilt by Joseph Pearce of St. James’s, a bricklayer, and George Pearce of St.Martin’s, a plumber. The lease - granted by the Duke of Portland in 1746 - shows that the Georgian ground plan of the House is largely unaltered since then. The stable yard is now the site of the Chapel.

The rococo decorative scheme dates from 1754. It was probably designed by Sir Robert Taylor (1714-1788) under the patronage of Richard Beckford, an MP for Bristol, (1712-1756) who had acquired the lease but whose illness and early death deprived him of enjoying the masterpiece. The Beckford family were wealthy plantation owners and politicians in Jamaica and England.

The Metropolitan Board of Works

In 1811 No.1 Greek Street ceased to be a private house and became the offices of the Westminster Commissioners of Sewers. Then in 1855, the Metropolitan Board of Works - with newly elected engineer Joseph Bazalgette – became its latest residents. During this period the nineteenth century additions were added at the back of the House.

Charles Dickens

'It is a far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.'

This is one of the most famous and moving lines in English literature from one of the great Victorian novels: A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens, published in 1859, set between the turmoil of Paris during the French Revolution and the comparative tranquillity of London.

Research published in The Dickensian in 1963 suggests that the rooms and gardens of the House of St Barnabas were the blueprint for the imagined lodgings of Dr Manette and Lucy in the novel. Subsequently, the road on which is the Chapel entrance is now named Manette Street.

In the novel Dickens writes: "...country airs circulated in Soho with vigorous freedom". He says of Dr Manette's lodgings that: "...a quainter corner where the Doctor lived, was not to be found in London." And of the location he writes: "...it was a cool spot, staid but cheerful, a wonderful place for echoes, and a very harbour from the raging streets." He talks of: "...a courtyard, where a plane tree rustled its green leaves".

The courtyard garden of the House of St Barnabas, with its two plane trees, certainly fits with Dickens' descriptive writings. In addition, tt is said that Charles Dickens often visited the House during the time that the building was occupied as offices, and that he sat and wrote in the garden beneath the mulberry tree.

Founding the House of Charity

In 1846 Dr Henry Monro(1817-1891), a young phyasician at the Bethlehem Hospital, and Roundell Palmer (who later became the 1st Earl of Selbourne, 1812-1895) worked with friends to found a House of Charity. The chairty rented what is now Artists House in Manette Street (then Rose Street), a building that was originally designed by James Paine as St Anne's parish workhouse and was build between 1770 and 1771. Founded as a charity to help those who were affected by homelessness, The House of Charity was guided by the ethics of the Oxford Movement.

The charity had two distinct aims at this time, the first being to provide relief, and the second “to enable persons whose time is limited by professions or other active duties, as well as those who have more leisure, to co-operate in works of charity under fixed regulations." The supporters or associates of the charity were expected to be actively involved in both the running of the charity on a daily basis, and in the lives of the inmates, leaving records which give a valuable insight into the human problems in the 19th century.

Moving to 1 Greek Street

In 1862, after half a century, the local authority moved to new offices and the Charity purchased No.1 Greek Street. On Thursday 26th June the new premises were blessed. Catherine Gladstone, with help from her husband William, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, laid a foundation stone for a Chapel designed by Joseph Clarke FSA (c1819-1881). William spoke of the House as the only home of refuge “for the waifs and strays of the turbid sea of human society” and about the great advantages of the personal works of charity that associates of the House were performing. When the Charity vacated 9 Rose Street, Anglican sisters from the Community of St John the Baptist moved in there and later, until World War Two, helped in running the House.

On Monday 27th June 1864 the first services took place in the new Chapel of St Barnabas, the saint whose name was later adopted for the House. By then sisters of the Community of St John the Baptist had moved into the old workhouse; we believe that they stayed there until 1899 but continued to help in the House until World War Two.

Charitable work

One of the original functions of the Charity was to keep families together when the husband of a family went into a workhouse. Between January 1847 and February 1851, 487 people were admitted. Of these, 103 were families ranging from a single mother to a family of ten with both parents and eight children. These families were a typical example of the way in which the House of Charity set out "to offer to those who are sunk in the depths of temporal, and frequently spiritual, wretchedness, the example of the discipline of a Christian family".

Between 1862 and the outbreak of the Second World War the Charity broadened its functions and over the years helped the homeless of London in many different ways: it helped people who were emigrating to Australia and were awaiting the long sea journey, people who had to come to London for surgery in hospitals, servants who had lost their jobs, teachers between positions and émigrés from Russia and the Balkans – an association which still continues to this day with the monthly services of the Macedonian community in the Chapel.

The Second World War and beyond

After the outbreak of the Second World War, during the blitz, the nuns moved back to Clewer and the House was requisitioned for war duty.

During the Second War, the Chapel sustained bomb damage and the restoration, 1957-58, brought fine stained glass by John Hayward (1929- 2007), including St Barnabas holding the Chapel and a remarkable set of Stations of the Cross.

After World War II

After the war the House opened as a women's hostel, originally helping ex-service women. The hostel had many supporters and friends, among them Joyce Grenfell, the comic actress, who was a constant visitor and fundraiser. The House closed as a women's hostel in 2006. All the residents were re-housed.

The individual stories of the people who made the House their home over this long period are recorded in the House archives, which are now kept in the Westminster Archive. Then, as now, the Charity was overseen by a Board of Trustees.

In 2005, the trustees decided that it was no longer feasible to operate the House as a hostel. The last residents were resettled by Friday 31st March 2006 and we embarked on an exciting new journey of using the House for social enterprise. The integrated Employment Academy supports the original objective of helping individuals through personal work.

The club at The House of St Barnabas opened on 1st October 2013; a not-for-profit private members' club with a drive for social change at it's heart.

The House

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  The Front Door
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  A view of the front hall from the Soho Room
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  The Soho Dining Room
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  The Dickens Room

The front door

The front door is original and the Charity still has the large key for the lock; 18th century London was a dangerous place hence the enormous safety chain.

The Entrance Hall

The simple decoration of the hall was a deliberate device to attract the visitor's eye to the richly decorated staircase leading to the elegant rooms on the first floor.

The Soho Room

The office for the Charity's Hostel Director and Personal Support Workers, who provided the vital one-to-one counselling, advice and support to the residents, was almost certainly this dining room. This room, together with the Dickens room that leads from it, has some interesting plasterwork from the 1750s, although it is not quite as ornate as the lively decoration that awaits the visitor in the rooms above. This room is now used as the members' dining room or sometimes the members' lounge.

The Dickens Room

This room has a fireplace with four roundel paintings of nuns. The painting hanging between the windows is an alleged depiction of Dr Henry Monro with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on either side.

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  View of the staircase
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  The landing
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  The Drawing Room
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  The Silk Room

The Staircase

The intricate wrought-iron balustrades are original. The original chandelier held candles and the mechanism for raising and lowering still exists. The Angel on the staircase is the oldest object in the house. It dates from the 1600s, is made of wood and is Flemish.

The Galleried Landing

This is an excellent vantage point from which to admire the quality of the plasterwork on the landing – the deep relief of the female busts, the lion's head and the swirling scrollwork. In Richard Beckford's time, the panels would almost certainly have held oil paintings, probably of members of his large family. Their places are now occupied by paintings by Alan Rankle.

The Drawing Room

The ceiling of this room, originally the drawing room of the house, is its most celebrated feature. In the corners, the heads represent the Four Seasons. The central oval medallion shows four putti, holding in their hands the symbols of the four elements: earth, water, fire and air.

At the top of the wall panel in the drawing room opposite the chimneypiece are two dragons – which are made of papier-mâché. Richard Beckford's brother, William Beckford, permitted Richard to borrow them from his own coat of arms. These are the dragons of London which, as an Alderman, William was entitled to use. When the House of Charity acquired the property three of the chimneypieces from the House, including the Council Room chimneypiece, were sold to fund the building of the Chapel. The overmantel is original but the present chimneypiece is a copy made in about 1960.

The Silk Room

This silk-lined room also has its original plasterwork ceiling and carved wooden chimneypiece. It is also called the Withdrawing Room because in Georgian times it was the room where ladies withdrew to.

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  The Bazalgette Room
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  The Library Room
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  The Monro Room
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  The Garden Room

The Bazalgette Room

At the rear of the House, this room was the principal bedroom. The chimneypiece and overmantel are original and the entrance door is matched by a false door at the southern end of the same wall. This was to give the room symmetry, but if you look to the north, you will see from the plain plasterwork that the room has been reduced in size to provide storage space for the Metropolitan Board of Works. The room takes its name from being the offices of the civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who designed London's sewage system. The House of Charity used the Bazalgette room to house its archives, including all the records of those helped. On the false wall is a metal photo print by Gilbert and George, who are depicted on the print.

The Library

The Library has two interesting features. The first is its Victorian fireplace with the badges of the House of Charity, inscribed with the Charity's founding date 1846 and 1862, the date the Charity moved into the House. Between the two badges is a text from St Matthew's Gospel "I was a stranger and ye took me in". The second feature is a tavern clock about four feet high and made entirely of black lacquered wood with gold painted numbers. The dial of these types of clocks was big and bold enabling them to be seen in dimly lit, smoke filled taverns. These clocks were also known as Act of Parliament Clocks because they became popular after the British Parliament passed an Act in 1797 levying a tax on domestic clocks with the result that people relied on public clocks for their time-keeping.

The Monro Room and the Garden Room

These two rooms were created by the Charity out of an extension devised by the Metropolitan Board of works on part of the site of the stables that complimented the Georgian House. Today they are mostly used for events.

The penny chute

On the outside of the house is the Penny Chute attached to the railings in Soho Square. Coins fall down the pipe to the alms box in the kitchen. People today still donate to the Charity using this method.

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The Chapel

The Chapel was built on the site of the Georgian stable yard between 1862 and 1864 by Edward Conder of Baltic Wharf, Kingsland Road. The architect was Joseph Clarke and the original plans for the site included a refectory with dormitories above and a cloister. The Annual Report of 1928 mentions that the plan of the Chapel "was suggested and partly designed from the plans of a Romanesque chapel attached to the Abbey of Montmajeur, Arles, France." The vision for the interior of the Chapel and for the cloistered dormitories are depicted in paintings situated in the corridor leading to the Chapel entrance.

The Chapel is a significant reminder of the Anglo-Catholic revival in the Church of England spearheaded by men like Newman, Pusey and Keble and the Tracts, 1833-1841, that earned them the name Tractarians. Their followers not only emphasised Catholic aspects of the Church of England but also a return to medieval Gothic architecture after neo-classical churches of the previous two hundred years. In 1848, the then Bishop of London, Archibald Tait, became Visitor to the charity and his successors continue to hold this office. The original plan included a throne for the Bishop behind the altar but, in 1865, Joseph Clarke proposed the mosaics by Harland and Fisher. The advice and support of the Visitor provide a living link between the House of St Barnabas and the Church of England in the Diocese of London.

During the Second World War, the original stained glass windows and roof of the Chapel suffered bomb damage. The apse above the altar was originally painted with the Passion of Christ and the windows commemorated the Charity's founders and supporters. The present windows behind the altar represent, from left to right, St Edward the Confessor; St Barnabas holding the Chapel in his arms; St Paul preaching and St John the Baptist holding the mother Chapel of Clewer in his arms; they were designed by John Hayward. The windows in the side apses, dating from 1958, represent the Stations of the Cross and the Annunciation. The organ was built by the firm of J.W. Walker in 1875 at a cost of £250 and was enlarged by them in 1884. At the west end of the South West apse is a memorial to Captain Henry Norman who died in 1925. He became a porter of the House after retiring as first mate of the Cutty Sark, the tea clipper now at Greenwich.

Worship and other events in the Chapel

The Chapel remains a sacred space for prayer and worship. Although it is an Anglican Chapel, currently there are Roman Catholic services for the 11 o'clock congregation from St Patrick's Soho Square and for London's Macedonian Orthodox community and baptisms and services following civil weddings. With its excellent acoustics, the Chapel is used for concerts and broadcasts — Paloma Faith has sung here — and for photography — The BBC filmed part of The Time Travellers Wife in the Chapel.

The House of St Barnabas run a series of events in the chapel consisting of acoustic music events and cultural discussions. Gilles Peterson, Andrew Weatherall and Martin Creed have all curated evenings of live music and performance in the chapel. These intimate events showcase emerging talent in keeping with the charity's ethos; St Barnabas is the Patron Saint of Encouragement.

References

Category:Grade I listed buildings in London Category:Houses in the City of Westminster Category:Soho, London