Issue 38 Summer web 23 - Flipbook - Page 60
Devonshire Square, was originally the home of Jasper
Fisher, who built an ambitious property in the 16th
century that included sumptuous pleasure gardens and a
bowling alley. The residence was so grand that it landed
Fisher in debt and later became known as Fishers Folly.
The Earls of Devonshire later resided in the house, but
by the 20th century it had fallen into disrepair and was
eventually demolished, and Devonshire Square was
created.
The historic façade on Bishopsgate presented the greatest
challenges. Originally built in 1878-9 the façade is largely
Bath stone and wraps round into the new Plaza. It was
designed in a restrained classical style with some detailing
and the stone painted at some point in its history, potentially to cover up damage following the IRA bombing in
1993. It is almost opposite Liverpool Street Station, built
in 1871-5 by the Great Eastern Railway to the designs of
engineer Edward Wilson. Of interest, the site of Liverpool
Street Station was originally the home of Bethlehem
Hospital, or Bedlam. The hospital remained on this site
for 429 years from 1247-1676 when it was moved to
Moorfields.
At the back of Devonshire Row and now facing into the
new public space is another piece of history in the form
of 1, Stonehouse Court, a listed facade built in 1928 by
the architect Albert Richardson, who was also founder of
the Georgian Group. The façade was dismantled to allow
for the construction works on the site. It comprises a segmental bay shop front with decorative ironwork, faience
cladding to the upper floors and a copper roof. The ornate
ironwork at ground level has been hand restored over a
period of two years by a specialist, and the faience, which
was lost during the works, recreated as an exact replica of
what was originally there. This required a lengthy process
of glaze colour matching with Hathern Terracotta using
small fragments of the original. Drawings detailing the
course heights of the original faience units were available
and these were used along with photographs of the façade
before it was taken down, to establish the dimensions of
the new, replacement faience pieces. To recreate this
faience façade involved significant collaboration between
the architects, Szerelmey design team and the manufacturer, and whilst only a small façade, is a real achievement.
Half of the Bishopsgate façade was removed to allow for
the construction project, and the Szerelmey team was
then tasked with rebuilding from new an exact replica of
the existing façade, and extending it to wrap round
and into the new Plaza area. Due to half of the façade
remaining, it was possible to draw up the new façade as
an exact replica and then replicate the detailing round
the corner and into the Plaza; this was done by Szerelmey
team using a combination of hand measuring and 3D laser
scanning for the complicated column capitals. There were
key pieces of the existing façade missing, most notably the
cornice which had been erroneously removed at some
point in history resulting in serious weathering to the
façade. The dentil course which had sat below the
cornice was still in existence and by measuring this and a
series of calculations combined with historic photographs,
the team was able to establish what the dimensions of the
cornice had been, and recreate it. Finally, historically the
building had been topped by a small, decorative cupola,
Opposite, Bishopsgate with half the facade removed by others
Below, Historic photograph of Bishopsgate
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