Chiltern Court
{{short description|Apartment block at Baker Street, London}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox historic site
| name = Chiltern Court
| image = Eric Coates house.jpg
| caption = "a stately classical pile"
| type = Block of flats
| locmapin = United Kingdom London Westminster
| map_relief = yes
| coordinates = {{coord|51.5227|-0.1564|display=inline,title|region:GB-WSM}}
| location = Baker Street, London
| area =
| built = 1927-29
| architect = Charles Walter Clark
| architecture = Neo-classical
| governing_body =
| designation1 =
| designation1_offname =
| designation1_date =
| designation1_number =
}}
Chiltern Court, Baker Street, London, is a large block of flats at the street's northern end, facing Regent's Park and Marylebone Road. It was built between 1927 and 1929 above Baker Street tube station by the Metropolitan Railway.
It was begun in 1912 and was originally intended as a hotel and as its company headquarters, but the Metropolitan's plans were interrupted by the First World War. When construction recommenced in the late 1920s, the building was redesigned as a block of flats and the Chiltern Court Restaurant. The architect was Charles Walter Clark.
During the 1930s the block was home to a number of notable figures, including the writers H. G. Wells, who held a weekly literary salon at his apartment, and Arnold Bennett, who died at the Court in 1931. The composer Eric Coates lived in the block between 1930 and 1936, and the cartoonist David Low was also a resident. During World War II, the Special Operations Executive was based at 64 Baker Street, and its Norwegian Section was located in three flats at Chiltern Court, from where it directed the operations against the heavy water plant at Telemark.
Chiltern Court is not listed, being specifically excluded from the listing designation for Baker Street tube station. It is recorded in Pevsner, where it is described as "a stately classical pile, the grandest [of the] mansion flats" in the vicinity.{{sfn|Cherry|Pevsner|2002|p=658}} The Chiltern Court Restaurant, now a bar, was referenced by John Betjeman in his television programme from 1973, Metro-land.
History
Baker Street station opened in 1863 as part of the development of the Metropolitan Railway which linked Paddington Station with Farringdon station,{{sfn|Cherry|Pevsner|2002|pp=614-615}} both in central London. It was the world's first truly underground railway.{{sfn|Green|1987||pp=3-5}} Over the next four decades the Metropolitan Railway extended its network, principally into the suburbs to the north and west of London, an area that became known as Metro-land,{{sfn|Jackson|1986|p=240}} and many of the train services to/from these locations started from/terminated at Baker Street.
In 1912 the company determined to construct a new headquarters building, and a hotel, above its Baker Street terminus. Its plans were interrupted by the First World War, and construction did not recommence until 1927.{{sfn|Cherry|Pevsner|2002|pp=614-615}} At this point, plans for the hotel were abandoned, and the company's in-house architect Charles Walter Clark drew up designs for an apartment block with attached restaurant.{{cite web |url=https://www.ribapix.com/Baker-Street-London-Underground-Station-and-Chiltern-Court-London_RIBA105502 |title=Chiltern Court, London |publisher=RIBA |access-date=10 January 2023}} Building was complete by 1929.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bam.co.uk/who-we-are/past-present-and-future/timeline/1900s---1940s |title=BAM History Timeline 1900s-1940s |publisher=BAM Group |website=www.bam.co.uk |access-date=24 April 2022}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/drawings/item/1994-1863 |title=Drawing: Baker Street Station - showing Proposed Flats (Chiltern Court) and Restaurant |publisher=London Transport Museum |access-date=24 April 2022}} The finished block contained 180 apartments, the Chiltern Court Restaurant, a hairdressers and staff accommodation.{{Cite web |url=https://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/getobject?rnum=L2656 |title=Chiltern Court and Baker Street Underground Station |access-date=24 April 2022}}
The apartments, which were expensive, attracted a range of notable residents. The writer H. G. Wells lived at the Court from 1930 to 1936, regularly hosting a weekly literary salon attended by friends, fellow authors and members of London society.{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/london-property-see-pictures-of-the-ps3-65m-flat-where-h-g-wells-hosted-a-book-club-a6728801.html |first=Zlata |last=Rodionova |title=See the flat where H. G. Wells hosted a book club |work=The Independent |date=10 November 2015}} The cartoonist David Low, a friend and attender at Wells' gatherings, also lived in the block.{{cite web |url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/lifestyle/property/for-sale-author-h-g-wells-marylebone-book-club-flat-3506032 |first=Robin |last=Nierynck |title=H. G. Wells Marylebone 'book club' flat |publisher=Ham&High |date=11 November 2015}} The author Arnold Bennett bought a flat in the building in 1930, and died there in March 1931 after contracting typhoid fever.{{Cite web |url=http://www.housebeautiful.co.uk/lifestyle/property/news/a3356/baker-street-apartment-h-g-wells-arnold-bennet-for-sale/ |title=Baker Street apartment where H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennet lived is now for sale |first=Katie |last=Avis-Riordan |date=20 February 2018 |publisher=House Beautiful}}{{cite web |url=https://www.idealhome.co.uk/news/baker-street-apartment-hg-wells-arnold-bennet-for-sale-195742 |first=Jennifer |last=Ebert |title=The Baker Street apartment where H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett lived |publisher=Ideal Home |date=21 April 2018}} As Bennett was dying, the local council permitted the laying of straw along the Marylebone Road outside Chiltern Court to lessen the noise of traffic, reportedly the last time this courtesy was permitted in London.{{efn|The council's consideration to the dying Bennett was marred by the overturning of a milk float in the street just hours after Bennett's death, which propelled the milk churns into the road with a "thunderous din".{{sfn|Pound|1953|p=367}}}}{{sfn|Pound|1953|p=367}} Another resident in the 1930s was the composer Eric Coates who lived in Flat 176 between 1930 and 1939.{{efn|Eric Coates' best known composition is perhaps By the Sleepy Lagoon, which is still regularly played as the opening theme to BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.{{cite web |url=https://www.classical-music.com/features/works/what-is-the-desert-island-discs-theme-tune/#:~:text=The%20theme%20tune%20to%20Desert,orchestral%20piece%20written%20in%201930. |first=Freya |last=Parr |title=What is the Desert Island Discs theme tune? |publisher=BBC Music |date=31 January 2022}}}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/eric-coates/ |title=Eric Coates, Composer: Blue Plaques |publisher=English Heritage |access-date=24 April 2022}}
During World War II the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was based at 64 Baker Street, hence its nickname, the Baker Street Irregulars.{{cite web |url=https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/cy/news/app-mark-londons-secret-war |title=App to mark London's secret war |date=26 January 2016 |publisher=Heritage Fund |access-date=24 April 2022}} The SOE had a Norwegian Section which was located in three flats at Chiltern Court. From this base, SOE operatives planned and instigated the attacks against the heavy water plant at Telemark where, following the German occupation of Norway in 1940, the Nazis sought to exploit the heavy water as a component of their nuclear weapons programme.{{efn|While ultimately successful in its efforts to impede the German production and exportation of heavy water, the SOE's incursions led to considerable loss of life. Operation Freshman, in November 1942, saw particularly heavy casualties.{{cite web |url=https://www.assaultglidertrust.co.uk/freshman/ |title=Operation Freshman - The Rjukan Heavy Water Raid 1942 |publisher=Assault Glider Trust |access-date=24 April 2022}}}}{{cite web |url=https://www.stmarylebone.org/images/stories/History/Heroism-in-baker-Street.pdf |title=Heroism in Baker Street |publisher=St Marylebone Society |access-date=24 April 2022}}
In 1973 John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate, began his TV documentary Metro-Land in the Chiltern Court Restaurant. The programme saw Betjeman travel from Chiltern Court to Verney Junction railway station, the (by then long-disused) farthest outpost of the Metropolitan line in Buckinghamshire.{{efn|Betjeman begins his commentary with the lines "Is this Buckingham Palace? Are we at The Ritz? No, this is the Chiltern Court Restaurant, built above Baker Street Station, the gateway between Metro-land and London."}}{{cite journal |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n23/e.s.-turner/the-thought-of-ruislip |first=E. S. |last=Turner |title=The Thought of Ruislip |journal=London Review of Books |date=2 December 2004 |volume=26 |issue=23}} Chiltern Court remains a privately operated block of residential flats.
The former Chiltern Court Restaurant, entered from Marylebone Road, is now operated as a pub, the Metropolitan Bar, by Wetherspoons.{{Cite web |url=https://manage.jdwetherspoon.com/pub-histories/england/london/the-metropolitan-bar-marylebone |title=The Metropolitan Bar, Baker Street |publisher=J D Wetherspoon |access-date=24 April 2022}} It has coats of arms on the walls of places linked to the Metropolitan Railway.{{cite web |title=Metropolitan Bar |url=https://www.london.camra.org.uk/viewnode.php?id=199191 |publisher=CAMRA}}
Architecture and description
Chiltern Court comprises seven storeys, a two-storey plinth with retail units on the ground floor, then three main storeys with residential accommodation and two attic storeys.{{sfn|Cherry|Pevsner|2002|p=658}} The whole is faced in Portland stone, and is designed in a Neoclassical style.{{cite web |url=https://www.westminster.gov.uk/media/document/dorset-square-conservation-area-audit |title=Dorset Square Conservation Area |publisher=Westminster City Council |access-date=24 April 2022}} Bridget Cherry, in her 2002 revision to the London 3: North West volume of the Pevsner Buildings of England series, describes it as "a stately classical pile, the grandest of [the] mansion flats" in the area.{{sfn|Cherry|Pevsner|2002|p=658}}
The building holds four Blue and other commemorative plaques, commemorating its occupants and history. Chiltern Court is not listed by Historic England, the listing for the Grade II* Baker Street Station specifically excluding the Court.{{NHLE|num=1239815|desc=Baker Street Station|grade=II*|access-date=24 April 2022}}
Gallery
H. G. Wells (5026568202).jpg|Plaque commemorating H. G. Wells
Arnold Bennett (5025953669).jpg|Plaque commemorating Arnold Bennett
Eric Coates - Composer.jpg|Plaque commemorating Eric Coates
Telemark plaque.jpg|Plaque commemorating the Telemark Raids
Sir Vincent Zachary Cope.jpg|The surgeon Sir Vincent Zachary Cope who lived at the court from 1944
David Low (cartoonist) 1943.jpg|The cartoonist David Low who lived at the court in the 1930s
Chiltern Court, Baker Street, London (4674991747).jpg|Chiltern Court from the Marylebone Road
The Metropolitan Bar 20180210 134200 (49388397278).jpg|Metropolitan Bar (formerly Chiltern Court Restaurant) in 2020
Footnotes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book |last1=Cherry |first1=Bridget |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link1=Bridget Cherry |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=2002 |title=London 3: North West |series=The Buildings of England |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1080901081 |location=New Haven, US and London |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09652-1 |oclc=1080901081}}
- {{cite book |last=Green |first=Oliver |title=The London Underground: An illustrated history |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/926303204 |year=1987 |location=London |publisher=Ian Allan Publishing |oclc=926303204}}
- {{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Alan |title=London's Metropolitan Railway |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/909977852 |year=1986 |location=Newton Abbot |publisher=David & Charles |isbn=978-0-715-38839-6 |oclc=909977852}}
- {{cite book |last=Pound |first=Reginald |title=Arnold Bennett: A Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/arnoldbennettbio0000poun/page/366/mode/2up |year=1953 |location=New York |publisher=Harcourt, Brace |oclc=950552766}}
{{Commons category|Chiltern Court, Baker Street, Westminster}}
Category:Apartment buildings in London
Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1929
Category:Buildings and structures in Marylebone
Category:Neoclassical architecture in London
Category:Residential buildings completed in 1929