Mad For It
Sunday afternoon cricket on Wandsworth Common makes for a bucolic tableau. It’s like a Lowry painting negative: starched white figures against a deep green, the working class city swapped for middle class suburbia. Or perhaps a Surrey village scene. Two centuries ago it would’ve been a Surrey village scene. Wandsworth only became a London Borough in more recent times. In the midst of the Common is a building locals refer to as “Dracula’s Castle” with good reason – its history is as dark as its slate roof.
The Treaty of Paris of 1856 brought the Crimean War formally to an end. The Royal Commission of the Patriotic Fund was established to collect and distribute money donated by the public for the widows and orphans of men killed in the Crimean War. The Fund’s Executive and Finance Committee decided to build an orphanage on the then edge of London for 300 daughters of soldiers, sailors and marines killed in the recent conflict. A well timed letter from Frederick, 4th Earl Spencer and great great grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales, solved the site issue:
“My Dear Sir, If the Patriotic Fund Commission should select my ground to found their Institution on Wandsworth Common I should be willing, in consideration of the national object, to take on half the price Mr Lee has fixed on the value viz: £50 an acre… I do not wish to encounter any difficulty with the Copyholders, and the Commissioners, if they entertain any position of land, must take all risks of those difficulties. Yours faithfully, Spencer.” The Committee accepted the Earl’s offer and bought 65 acres (26 hectares) for £3,700. Nearby Spencer Park, where Chef Gordon Ramsay has his London pad, is a reminder of the Northamptonshire aristocratic connection.
The building may also look like a Victorian madhouse but that’s about the only use it hasn’t been even though it was originally called the Asylum. Now for a countdown through the decades: 1858 orphanage; 1914 hospital; 1919 orphanage once more; 1939 reception centre; 1946 training college; 1952 school; 1970 vacant; and of late, 27 apartments, 20 studios, 15 workshops, two offices, a drama school and Le Gothique bar and restaurant. Tom Bailey from the Thompson Twins lives in one of the apartments. Past residents have included Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor and Charlotte Jane Bennett. The latter was an unfortunate schoolgirl who burned to death in 1901 on an upper floor – her ghost is said to prowl the interior as night falls.
What on earth is a ‘reception centre’ or to use its full name the London Reception Centre? It is a somewhat euphemistic term for a refugee detention headquarters. Following the collapse of France and the Low Countries in 1940 in World War II, a flood of refugees entered Britain. Those from Germany and the Axis countries were usually interned while non enemy aliens were interviewed by immigration. MI5 decided to create a reception centre and where better than the highly adaptable Royal Patriotic School as it was known in its latest guise. Refugees from Occupied Europe had to pass through the reception centre – a sheep from the goats process. An average of 700 refugees were processed each month. Several spies were unmasked and hanged at Wandsworth Prison across the Common. It is rumoured that the Nazi Rudolf Hess was interrogated in the reception centre.
Major Rohde Hawkins was the original architect; Giles Quarme, the restoration architect. The 17th century George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh designed by William Wallace was the inspiration for the design. Major Hawkins sought to omit some of the ornamental details “to carry out which it was found would absorb too large an amount of the surplus at the disposal of the Commissioners”. Opening the orphanage, Queen Victoria declared it to be “beautiful, roomy and airy”. Recounting the day’s events in her diary that night, Her Majesty ended the entry with an entreaty: “May this good work, which is to bear my name, prosper!”
The Building News praised the new orphanage as being “bold, picturesque and effective”. Later royal visitors would include King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, Princess Victoria, and Queen Amelia of Belgium. Country Life contributor Dr Roderick O’Donnell recognises the influence of municipal Flemish works in the architecture. “This is a secular gothic rather than ecclesiastical gothic influenced by buildings such as town halls in Florence and Bruges. There are also tones of Scottish baronial. The rhythm of a central tower with balancing towers either end of the façade was very popular during this period.” A corresponding orphanage (now Emanuel School) designed by Henry Saxon Snell was built for boys slightly to the north of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum.
The Survey of London Volume 49 Battersea (2013) edited by Andrew Saint records, “The lifespan of the Royal Commission of the Patriotic Fund Boys’ School (its official name) was brief. The Fund had been created in a surge of sympathy for the dead of the Crimean War, with the aim of maintaining their orphaned children. It was resolved to create a school and asylum for 300 girls, and another for 100 boys. The girls came first. With the money amply donated, the Commissioners bought the Clapham Junction site. This land’s southern portion was farmed, while at its centre arose the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum, conceived as a ‘national monument’ and built in 1858 to 1859 to ebullient gothic designs by Major Rohde Hawkins, architect to the Committee of Council on Education.”
“Built as a school for orphaned daughters of servicemen, 1857 to 1859, by Rhode [sic] Hawkins,” summarise Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry in The Buildings of England London 2: South (1983). “A typically pompous Victorian symmetrical composition of yellow brick, with coarsely robust gothic detail. Three storeys with entrance below a central tower; lower towers at the ends, corbelled out turrets and bow windows. Statue of St George and the Dragon in a central niche. Separate chapel. Low concrete additions of the 1960s to the north.”
Amongst the flourish of turrets, spikes and spires is a crocketed pinnacle with what appear to be mad cows nosediving off it. “It is strange that the gargoyles are in the form of hounds or lambs in lead!” observes heritage architect John O’Connell. “The Major designed this architectural element in timber and lead when it should all be in stone.” The orphanage Commissioners noted in their 1869 report that “from the size of the building and its peculiar construction and arrangements, it is a most expensive one to manage and keep in repair”. So much for Major Rohde Hawkins’ value engineering efforts! That’s no surprise. It is a complex complex with the main block built around a north courtyard and a south courtyard separated by a dining hall which is now used by the drama school. Both courtyards are surrounded on three sides by ground floor cloister type corridors. A rear courtyard cloistered on one side extends to the east and to the northeast is a standalone chapel.
Master of the Gothic Revival architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s preferred builder George Myers constructed the orphanage. His tender of £31,337 also happened to be the lowest. “George Myers had an enormous works along the South Bank in Lambeth,” explains Dr O’Donnell. “Middlesex County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Colney Hatch, Barnet, was his largest project.” The contractor made one change to Major Hawkins’ design, replacing a clock with a statue of St George and the Dragon – which as a skilled stonemason he may have carved himself – on the top floor of the entrance tower. Innovative construction methods included off site prefabrication of iron window frames, decorative leadwork and stone dressings. This allowed construction to be completed in under two years. Mark Justin, founder of Le Gothique relates, “This was the first building in the UK to have pre stressed concrete and mesh floors.” The restoration of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building would take three times as long.
“This building has a colourful history!” says Mark with more than a hint of understatement. He manages the bar and restaurant with his son Andrew. “Le Gothique is masculine not feminine because it’s named after the era not the building. I’ve been here for 35 years – I’m the longest serving landlord of a venue in London. Jean-Marie Martin was our French Head Chef for the first 25 years. Our Head Chef is now Italian Bruno Barbosa. If I’m asked for a description of our food I’d say ‘modern European’.”
Mark confirms the Rudolf Hess story is more than a rumour. “He came here in 1945. Why did he come to the UK though? On a whim he crash landed in the Duke of Hamilton’s estate in Scotland. He seemingly thought he could arrange peace talks with the Duke who was involved with the British Government’s war policy but he misunderstood pacifism here. Churchill went ballistic and he was arrested. But why did he come? He was invited by the Royals, specifically King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Hess spent three days in the reception centre. The Government papers were due to be released but have been classified again until 2035. It’s all to do with Rudolf Hess and the potential downfall of the monarchy.”
“The restoration and conversion were featured in a 24 page spread in Architects’ Journal. Architect Eva Jiricna did the apartment interiors. She replaced the wooden beams with high tension steel wire and added glass staircases to mezzanine bedrooms.” Mark finishes, “Businessman Paul Tutton bought the 3,700 square metre derelict listed building from the Greater London Corporation for a pound. It was pigeon central! He restored and converted the building incrementally. Geoff Adams bought flat number one in 1985 for £24,000. Geoff died last year.” Gnocchi with butternut squash velouté followed by tart aux poires with vanilla ice cream, modern and European and delicious, are served alfresco in the north courtyard. Upstairs, a figure darts across one of the windows. Could it be Charlotte Jane?
It’s the best address in town: One Avenue de l’Impératrice. Well, if it was good enough for Romy Schneider (performing in Tournage de La Banquiere 1980); Ernest Hemingway (Il passe l’ete 1959 a sillonner l’Espagne a bord de sa vielle Lancia suivant l’itineraire tauromachique du Mano à Mano de Luis Miguel Dominguin et d’Antonio Ordonex, preparant ainsi un livre sur la rivalite des deux plus grands Matadors de l’epoque. Sur la route, venant du Havre, Hemingway et sa femme Mary s’arreterent a Biarritz a L’Hôtel du Palais), Wallis Duchess of Windsor and Edward Duke of Windsor (inauguration of Biarritz Polo Grounds 1951) …
Dame Rosalind Savill, the relaunching Director of The Wallace Collection London, once quipped, “I hate the term ‘hidden gem’!” Hôtel du Palais, by anyone’s standards, isn’t a hidden gem. It’s the crown on the coast. The tiara atop the hill. Hidden gem, low key, undiscovered: none of these descriptions have ever been used for the finest hotel in Basque Country. The names of the salons of Hôtel du Palais recall its royal connections: Alphonse XIII, Edouard VII, Impérial, Mathilde. Second Empire style prevails throughout the hectarage of splendour.
A timber marquetry surfboard in the entrance hall crafted by artist Joël Roux is a reminder Biarritz is the capital of European surf. A hand painted surfboard in La Rotunde restaurant depicting the Emperor and Empress suggests deep down they really wanted to do more than fight wars and build palaces. Of course, they were dreaming of riding the waves fantastic.
The homogeneity of the architecture is deceiving, especially when viewed through a blaze of buddlejas. The current giant number three footprint is the outcome of several distinct building sprees. Architect Hippolyte Durand was appointed in 1854 to design a villa for the Empress Eugénie. Some things don’t change in the development industry: he was sacked the following year and replaced by the 27 year old Louis-Auguste Couvrechef. Three years later, Louis-Auguste died and was succeeded by Gabriel-Auguste Anclete. At least a few architects were kept employed. It’s still the best example of Louis the Hooey on the Bay of Biscay, new extensions included.
The words of Min Hogg, Founding Editor of The World of Interiors, echo across the marble halls, “Beautiful décor will always be one of life’s greatest pleasures.” She invented the phrase “shabby chic”. Hôtel du Palais is incroyablement chic.
Breakfast at the top table – centrally positioned in the vast semicircle that is La Rotunde to watch the crashing splashing arc of Atlantic – makes life worth living. Service à la Russe and buffet cater for the best of both worlds. Local delicacies include Gâteau Basque à la Cerise and Gâteau Basque à la Crème as well as Ossau Iraty and Bleu des Basques cheeses. A rainbow of juices covers apple, kiwi and spinach; apple, lemon and charcoal; lemon, carrot and orange. Eggs are easy like Friday mornings.
Later, Chef Christopher Scheller will share some epicurean seafood tips: “I love caviar particularly from Aquitaine, the world’s only caviar with Protected Geographical Indication status. We enjoy it Russian style in its purest form or served with ultra fresh peas for a subtle interplay between richness and vegetable sweetness.” He continues, “I’d heard of Banka trout by name but I only really discovered it when I arrived in the region. We cook it in various ways: home smoked in our own smokehouse, confit in fennel infused oil or simply seared on the plancha.” And, “We serve oysters from my friend Joël Dupuch. They can be enjoyed plain during our brunches or lightly grilled over charcoal at our garden parties, simply seasoned with a pinch of crushed Sarawak pepper. A real explosion of flavour.”
Much later, Christopher will share some epicurean vegetable tips: “Courgette flowers are true seasonal delights. We treat them like sweets. Raw and garnished with a delicate spider crab meat in the fining dining restaurant or as tempura in summer, to be savoured overlooking the ocean by the Sunset Pool.” He continues, “I discovered Les Cressonnières d’Aquitaine during my local research. I like to use their watercress in a fine hot cream to accompany scallops or serve it raw in a salad to add a touch of freshness to devilled eggs.” And, “White asparagus is this region’s signature produce. We prepare these Queens of the Sands in every possible way: poached and served with a citrus infused mousseline or pan seared and lightly caramelised with honey.”
Hôtel du Palais Biarritz: fit for an empress. Always.
