From Electricity to University
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| Electric House sign caught by the sun, August 2017 |
The building has recently been renovated, however rather than becoming apartments like so many other Croydon buildings, it is now a campus of London South Bank University. The courses available are in the medical fields of adult nursing, mental health nursing and chiropractic, plus business. The first students began their courses in 2021 and next week a larger cohort will join the campus. It's great that central Croydon is home to this campus providing much-needed nurses to our NHS. The nursing students undertake placements all over London, plus south of Croydon down to the Gatwick area.
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| Main entrance |
It's difficult to find a lot of information or photos of electricity showrooms. I remember visiting Amberley Museum in West Sussex many years ago and seeing a sort of electricity showroom there - it's a collection established by the South Eastern Electricity Board (SEEBOARD). I have found some photos on Flickr including one of a cooking demonstration at an electricity showroom in Dunedin, New Zealand, around 1970. While there has been much talk of electricity recently due to the huge price increases, it is something we largely take for granted. In the 1930s and 40s it must have been very exciting seeing new appliances and displays.
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| Norfolk House reflected in Electric House sign |
The foundation stone was laid on 6th March 1939, according to the engraving on it, next to the building's entrance. I don't know how the outbreak of war six months later affected the building project but the Historic England listing entry states it was built between 1939 and 1942. Although many buildings in this country are much older than that, it is older than most other buildings on Wellesley Road and Park Lane in the town centre (roughly between the Flyover and St Mary's Church).
SEGAS House, the equivalent gas showrooms and offices, was built nearby at the same time and is located on the corner of Katharine Street between the Queen's Gardens and St George's House (former Nestle building). Sadly, the redevelopment project that included SEGAS House has stalled and the building is looking dilapidated.
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| SEGAS House on left |
I don't know when Electric House ceased to be used by the electricity showrooms. At some point it was taken over by the Home Office and used alongside Lunar and Apollo House for processing immigration applications. I imagine people visiting then were too stressed by dealing with the bureaucracy of the immigration system to appreciate the architecture. In 2013 the Home Office moved out and it was unused apart from housing some property guardians, until a couple of years ago when London South Bank University (LSBU) began work to convert it.
Electric House was designed to incorporate references to nature, which is an interesting contrast with the new electric technology it was built to show off. The front of the building and the entrance are original. The historic reception area has a contemporary feel while retaining the striking marble flooring with a design showing phases of the Moon and the Sun (see photo above).
There are some huge metal and glass doors opening inwards from Wellesley Road, which remind me of the enormous wooden doors found in some old churches.
In the centre of the building is a sizeable horseshoe-shaped courtyard area with a gateway tall enough for horses to enter. It apparently originally featured a fountain but was used for parking by the Home Office. It will be refurbished in due course as an outdoor seating area for the students to enjoy. The ground floor features columns of Portland Stone facing into the courtyard and on top of the columns are intricately carved urns with nature scenes on, described by Historic England as follows:
"dedicated to 'fire', 'air', 'earth', 'water', 'time', 'energy', 'flight', 'Elysium', and 'Hesperides'"
In keeping with its original purpose, the building is home to state-of-the-art technology for the students to make use of. There are four storeys plus a basement, which apparently had a flooding problem but has now been dried out and refurbished with chiropractic training rooms.
On the ground floor is the Enterprise Centre, a large open plan room with desks and computers which can be used by students but also by local businesses.
There's a student centre/library which has fewer books than my university library did, but they do a smaller number of courses and most of what they need will be available online. There's computers, desks, individual soundproof pods and laptops for hire. There are study areas throughout the building where students can collaborate or study alone. There's also a café with a contemporary industrial style ceiling.
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| View from the basement up the stairwell |
The stairs are in the art deco style and there are lifts with art deco panels around them.
The former board room is a modern, colourful lecture theatre with the original high ceiling which was apparently covered by a false ceiling before LSBU moved in.
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| Board room/lecture theatre ceiling |
The large windows give views over central Croydon in all directions: out onto Wellesley Road, towards the Clocktower and the pedestrianised end of George Street, and out onto Dingwall Avenue, where an empty office building and the run-down Allders multistorey car park are opposite. Until 1965, the view would have been rather different, as it would have looked towards the playing fields of Whitgift Middle School (renamed Trinity School and now in Shirley).
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| Norfolk House on Wellesley Road |
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| Looking North along Wellesley Road |
The red brick Victorian buildings of George Street stand out amongst all the newer architecture. Croydon Clocktower is in the centre.
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