Cheltenham - Part 1

Cheltenham is perhaps best known for its race course and for being the home of GCHQ, but it is now time to put in on the map for its clocks.

A high proportion of the clocks are on ecclesiastic or educational establishments, which may or may not say something about the good people of the town. But nevertheless there is a good range of public timepieces to be seen.

The order of the clocks in this post is roughly in the order in which the pictures were taken rather than trying to provide a sensible route to see them all in a day's visit. And unusually we don't start with the railway station as unfortunately it is devoid of any clocks (or at least ones which would make it into this blog).

In fact our starting point is a clock that can't really be seen at the moment - in the sense that it is currently obscured by scaffolding rather than having magically turned invisible.

Hopefully by the time you track it down it will be fully visible. And if you do want to track it down, let me make it easier by telling you that this Francis Close Hall in Swindon Road - part of the University of Gloucester.

Not far away is St Paul's church:

Thus Grade II* church was designed by John Forbes and was built in 1829 - 31.

It is getting rarer to find Marks & Spencer on the High Street these days as it has shifted focus to out of town sites (and by all accounts doing much better financially out of the strategy). However the High Street stores that do still exist often come adorned with the standard M&S clock, and in this regard Cheltenham does not let us down.

Further along the High Street where it is joined by Cambray Place we find this fine corner building.

I couldn't see any sign of what this building used to be, but I am pretty sure that the current street level shop was not its original purpose. My guess that it might have been a bank due to its grand nature and the fact there are other bank buildings (or generally ex-banks) nearby along the High Street.

Another church now - this time the Roman Catholic church of St Gregory the Great, located on the corner of St James' Square and Clarence Street.

The main body of the church was built 1854 - 57, although the tower and spire was not completed until 1876. The architect was Charles Hansom (1817 - 1888), who designed scores of churches across the country. And if you you think the name rings a bell, he was the brother of Joseph Hansom, also an architect but also creator of the Hansom Cab.

Sometimes buildings look like churches when they are not, and sometimes they look like churches because that was what they were originally built as but have now been re-purposed. Such is the case with Zizzi in Suffolk Square, whose structure was once St James' church.

As a church, this building was consecrated in 1830 and ceased being a place of worship in 1974. It was converted to its current restaurant use in 2004. If you looked at its lifespan to date as a pie chart, the Zizzi period would have an arc of about 36 degrees, or a thinnish slice of pizza.

From churches to colleges, we are now at Cheltenham College. The first of three clocks is on a side elevation in Sandford Road. This set back a long way from the road (see if you can spot in in the second photo) and is a relatively simple clock, and hence it can be assumed that this meant for the pupils of the school only rather than one for the general public.

 

The main entrance on Bath Road is far more impressive, and has a more elegant clock to match.

The college was established on this site in 1843, and the main building was designed by James Wilson of Bath.

The third clock is facing the college's sports ground.

We haven't had a look at church for a little while, so here's St Luke's, on St Luke's Road.

The church dates from 1853-54, and was designed by Frederick W Ordish of London.

Back to educational establishments, we are now at Cheltenham Ladies' College, which is much more widely known than its male counterpart. The clock is on one of its buildings on Montpellier Street, although it is best viewed between the gaps in the buildings on the Promenade.

The main site was built 1872 - 76, but the clock is on the tower of the observatory added in 1897.

We will finish off part 1 of our tour of Cheltenham by looking at three clocks on commercial premises on the Promenade, the posh shopping street of the town.

The first two are standard promotional designs for Omega and Rolex on the the Omega and Martin & Co shops respectively:

The third Promenade clock is both larger and more interesting, and also possibly doomed. This long-established department store is now part of the House of Fraser Group, and at the time of my visit (February 2024) was in the process of shutting down (who would have thought that Mike Ashley's Sports Direct Group would downgrade quality shopping?).

The original Victorian frontage was given a major makeover in the 1960's, which I assume is when this rather pleasing clock was added. Who knows what will happen to the building, but hopefully the clock will be retained.

Next stop, Part II.

Open House London 2016

This weekend has been the annual Open House London time, with 750 buildings open to the public.

As usual, a big thanks goes to the overall organisers (see www.openhouselondon.org.uk), all the building owners, the staff and the volunteers for making this such a great event.

This is my record of the clocks that I saw at or from the buildings I visited.

Also, I thought that I knew the City of London pretty well in terms of its clocks, but on my wanderings between buildings I spotted five clocks which I hadn't previously recorded. These will be shown in later postings - in fact I feel that the time has come to have a post for every single public clock in the City of London, so watch this space. And judging by this weekend's experience, I will need your help in finding the ones that I don't know about. Any guesses yet for how many clocks there are in the City?

My buildings this year were St Paul's, St Lawrence Jewry, a talk at the Guildhall City Centre, St George's Bloomsbury, St Botolph's  Building, Holland House, St Botolph's church, Bevis Marks Synagogue and Drapers Hall.

So, we start with St Paul's Cathedral. I don't I need to say anything about the building, but here is its clock:

St Lawrence Jewry sits by the Guildhall, and is a 17th century building by Sir Christopher Wren (and hence linked to St Paul's) - although the interior is a more modern refurbishment following extensive damage in World War II.

And thank you to the volunteer who informed me that the ornate gilded ironwork in front of the Lord Mayor's pew was of course a sword rest.

Taking an excursion outside of the City, my next stop is St George's Bloomsbury in Bloomsbury Way.

 

This is one of Nicholas Hawksmoor's 18th century masterpieces.

And in typical Hawksmoor style is fantastically bonkers. The tower has a steeple based on the design of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, topped with a statue of George I...

...and a lion and a unicorn thrown in for good measure.

The St Botolph Building is at 138 Houndsditch (always great road names in the City), and is a 52,000 square metre floorspace office building completed in 2010.

No clocks on this building, but you can spot a few out of the windows of the thirteenth floor:

Christchurch, Spitalfields (another Hawksmoor theatrical creation)-

St Botolph, Bishopgate -

and Liverpool Street station -

And all credit to Clyde & Co LLP for opening up their office floor, and for displaying a collection of artwork from students from London arts colleges (www.artawards.clydeco.com).

The colour of the building was supposedly chosen to match the centre of the clock on nearby St Botolph Aldgate:

St Botolph Aldgate is by George Dance the Elder, and dates from the 1740s.

Next up is another place of worship, Bevis Marks Synagogue, dating from 1701 and the oldest synagogue in Britain.

And finally on to Drapers Hall in Throgmorton Street. This is one of the City's livery halls, and originally dates back to the 1530s, although with subsequent rebuilding. The magnificent interior is mostly Victorian.

This is the Livery Hall...

...with a clock on the right hand side of the end wall..

..and a wind direction gauge on the left hand side.

The Drawing Room has this clock in the fireplace:

I now wait for Open House London 2017.