Chapter 11 of 121840–2008

Overwrought, showy or surprising?

Victorian writers recorded the building rather than judging it. In 1881 the local historian W. J. Pinks called it “the present commodious building”.1 Pinks (1881), p. 177. Compare Architectural Publication Society, The Dictionary of Architecture, vol. 1, “Bartholomew (Alfred)”: “The Finsbury Savings Bank, in Sekford Street, is given in the Civil Engineer, etc., Journal for 1840, p. 217”. “Recorded rather than judging” is this page’s summary. The Architectural Review reproduced the 1840 engraving in June 1929 (vol. 65, p. 272) and October 1942 (vol. 92, p. 102). The twentieth century paid more attention. Howard Colvin’s Biographical Dictionary (1954) called it Bartholomew’s “only work of importance”.2 Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects 1660–1840, 1st edn (1954): “His practice was not large, and his only work of importance was the (classical) FINSBURY SAVINGS BANK in SECKFORD STREET, 1840”; the 4th edn (A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840, Yale, 2008) calls it “(Italianate classical)”. In 1966 Ian Nairn gave it a full entry in Nairn’s London, the one that deplored the lime-green paint (chapter 9). It deserves to be read whole.3 Julian Orbach’s Blue Guide (1987) found it “oddly out of place in this warehouse district”.4 Julian Orbach, Blue Guide: Victorian Architecture in Britain (A & C Black, 1987), Clerkenwell section. For Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner (1998) it was “A surprising and attractive survival”, and for the Survey of London (2008) it was “showy”.5 Cherry and Pevsner, London 4: North (1998), p. 42: “A surprising and attractive survival is the stuccoed Italianate Finsbury Savings Bank by Alfred Bartholomew, of 1840, a showpiece in the contemporary Sekforde estate in Finsbury.” Survey of London vol. 46, p. 77, para [p29] (“showy”); Introduction, p. 22, para [p114] (“a fulsome Italianate manner”). The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), “Bartholomew, Alfred”, calls it “a handsome Italianate building … which still survives”.

“An extraordinary overwrought building produced by a thoughtful man (an early editor of the Builder) trying to will his way out of the nineteenth-century confusion of styles and finding that his brain became overheated in the process. The style is more or less Barry’s, but with every detail screwed into place compulsively. Yet it is not hysterical, and each of its parts separately seems quite natural, such as the glass wall to the banking hall on the ground floor. What holds the design together is the splendid embossed lettering. After a century of sobriety we have seen fit to repaint it in lime green. This is a disaster which almost obliterates the building; it should revert to cream stucco forthwith.”

Ian Nairn, Nairn’s London, Penguin, 1966, p. 1723 Nairn, Nairn’s London (1966), p. 172. The entry is quoted in full. Also quoted in David McKie, McKie’s Gazetteer (2008).

Oliver Bradbury finds “more than a trace of Soane” in the bank. In its trio of Venetian windows he sees an echo of the Garden Court at the Bank of England, “updated with a Barry-esque Italianate inflection”.6 Bradbury (2017), p. 95: the bank’s “trio of Venetian windows … recalls the use of this type of window as repeated in the west quadrangle of the Garden Court” at the Bank of England, a type “to be found in the middle window” at Sekforde Street. The comparison is Bradbury’s alone. He calls Bartholomew “a pupil of a pupil of Soane”. That is accurate, but by 1839 Bartholomew was sharply critical of Soane as a designer (his training).7 Bradbury (2017), p. 95; Bartholomew, Hints (1839), §21, and Specifications (1840), §§384, 856–857. Colvin’s verdict on the architect himself was that “Writing and journalism were, however, to be his real métier” (his reputation).8 Colvin, Biographical Dictionary, 4th edn (2008), “Bartholomew, Alfred” (Internet Archive full-text search, item biographicaldict0000colv_v8k3).

The building was listed at Grade II on 29 December 1950, the same day as its neighbours. It stands in the Clerkenwell Green Conservation Area.9 Historic England list entry 1209479 (“Date first listed: 29-Dec-1950”; “previously listed as SEKFORD STREET, Nos.18 1/2, Finsbury and City of London Savings Bank”; last amended 30 September 1994, with a minor amendment on 18 January 2017); list entries 1195752 (Nos 17–18) and 1195753 (Nos 19–21), both first listed 29 December 1950. London Borough of Islington, “Conservation areas” (CA1, Clerkenwell Green, designated 19 November 1968, last extended 19 November 1996); whether Sekforde Street was inside the boundary from the start is not recorded. Islington’s Clerkenwell Green … Conservation Area Design Guidelines (January 2002), Schedule 1.2, include No. 18½ in their “List of buildings which should be retained”.

Notes

Pinks (1881), p. 177. Compare Architectural Publication Society, The Dictionary of Architecture, vol. 1, “Bartholomew (Alfred)”: “The Finsbury Savings Bank, in Sekford Street, is given in the Civil Engineer, etc., Journal for 1840, p. 217”. “Recorded rather than judging” is this page’s summary. The Architectural Review reproduced the 1840 engraving in June 1929 (vol. 65, p. 272) and October 1942 (vol. 92, p. 102).
Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects 1660–1840, 1st edn (1954): “His practice was not large, and his only work of importance was the (classical) FINSBURY SAVINGS BANK in SECKFORD STREET, 1840”; the 4th edn (A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840, Yale, 2008) calls it “(Italianate classical)”.
Nairn, Nairn’s London (1966), p. 172. The entry is quoted in full. Also quoted in David McKie, McKie’s Gazetteer (2008).
Julian Orbach, Blue Guide: Victorian Architecture in Britain (A & C Black, 1987), Clerkenwell section.
Cherry and Pevsner, London 4: North (1998), p. 42: “A surprising and attractive survival is the stuccoed Italianate Finsbury Savings Bank by Alfred Bartholomew, of 1840, a showpiece in the contemporary Sekforde estate in Finsbury.” Survey of London vol. 46, p. 77, para [p29] (“showy”); Introduction, p. 22, para [p114] (“a fulsome Italianate manner”). The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), “Bartholomew, Alfred”, calls it “a handsome Italianate building … which still survives”.
Bradbury (2017), p. 95: the bank’s “trio of Venetian windows … recalls the use of this type of window as repeated in the west quadrangle of the Garden Court” at the Bank of England, a type “to be found in the middle window” at Sekforde Street. The comparison is Bradbury’s alone.
Bradbury (2017), p. 95; Bartholomew, Hints (1839), §21, and Specifications (1840), §§384, 856–857.
Colvin, Biographical Dictionary, 4th edn (2008), “Bartholomew, Alfred” (Internet Archive full-text search, item biographicaldict0000colv_v8k3).
Historic England list entry 1209479 (“Date first listed: 29-Dec-1950”; “previously listed as SEKFORD STREET, Nos.18 1/2, Finsbury and City of London Savings Bank”; last amended 30 September 1994, with a minor amendment on 18 January 2017); list entries 1195752 (Nos 17–18) and 1195753 (Nos 19–21), both first listed 29 December 1950. London Borough of Islington, “Conservation areas” (CA1, Clerkenwell Green, designated 19 November 1968, last extended 19 November 1996); whether Sekforde Street was inside the boundary from the start is not recorded. Islington’s Clerkenwell Green … Conservation Area Design Guidelines (January 2002), Schedule 1.2, include No. 18½ in their “List of buildings which should be retained”.