The Assembly Rooms - A fine heritage building now empty and unused

Listed Grade II* - now disused and on the Buildings at Risk register
The Assembly Rooms (now known as Waterloo House) were built around 1692. They are arguably the most important building in Epsom of the period when the town developed into the leading health spa in England. This line drawing (© Jphn McInalley) shows what they would have looked like when they were first opened. Note particularly the carriage entrance so that passengers arriving by coach would not be exposed to the weather. Sadly, the building, now known as Waterloo House, has been empty for some years. It needs a new owner, sensitive to the architectural merits of the building and its national significance has been recognised by its listed building status, to make it once again the glory of the centre of Epsom!

The Assembly Rooms c. 1692 as reconstructed by John McInalley
How was it used?

The public assembly formed a regular feature of fashionable life in the 18th century. Spas had been in existence for several centuries, as places to go to bathe in the waters or to drink the water for the good of one's health. In the 17th century, they began to develop as social centres as well. So special buildings were put up to provide a place for large gatherings of people to meet.

The Assembly Rooms in Epsom were probably the first to be built, and were followed by Horne's Room at St. Pancras around 1700,.the lower room at Bath in 1730, and the Old Room at Cheltenham in 1738.

Assembly rooms were typically built with large rooms, with a length much greater than their width, in order to avoid the complexity and expense of wide ceiling spans. Our Assembly Rooms are very typical of this style of building

Defoe described it in 1722: "After the morning diversions are over, and every one are walking home to their lodgings, the town is perfectly quiet again. nothing to be seen. the Green. the Great Room, the gambling-shops are all shut up. Towards evening, the bowling-green begins to fill, the music strikes up in the Great Room, and company draws together apace. And here they never fail of abundance of mirth, every night being a kind of ball, the gentlemen bowl, the ladies dance, others gamble and some rattle, conversation is the general pleasure of the place, till it grows late, and then the company draws off".

Over the next hundred years, the importance of the town as a spa declined, and the Assembly Rooms gradually passed into other uses. By 1810, it was described as "now disused, partly shut up, or let out in small tenements" and in 1813, the whole complex was put up for auction by order of the Court of Chancery, and was auctioned by Mr. Hunter at the Spread Eagle in 1814. Local legend says that the building was renamed Waterloo House because a ball was held in it when the news of the battle first reached Epsom. In 1830, a large function room was added on to the Kings Head, and this spelt the final demise of the Assembly Rooms as a place for public entertainment.

The history of Waterloo House since that time has been one of constant adaptation to a series of new uses; it is well documented in "Waterloo House; the Epsom Assembly Rooms by Normal Nail, Nonsuch Antiquarian Society)(from which much of the material in this note has been taken). For a long time, it was divided into shops. In 1884 Walford wrote " The large room, the floor of which was trodden two centuries ago by royal and noble belles and beaus, and was the scene of endless flirtation and gaiety, now serves as a dull store or magazine for goods".

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, Waterloo House was the home of the leading draper's shop for miles around. In 1955, this was taken over by Ely's of Wimbledon, who carried out extensive alterations. They left in 1964, and the building was taken over by the National Counties Building Society, who continued to occupy it as their head office They left in 1995 and since then the building has been empty, whilst efforts have been made to find a suitable buyer and occupier. .

There is no more fitting end-note than that of Norman Nail written in 1999 "Our final judgement must be that Waterloo House is a national as well as a local treasury, which conservation planning has so far passed by. It is to be hoped that wiser counsels will prevail in the future and lead to a restoration of its elevations and plan form rather than to further destruction of this fine and unique building which is of great importance to Epsom's heritage, and to the national heritage of spa towns and their buildings. Recent developments A planning application submitted in 1998 but subsequently withdrawn The Council for British Archeology commented on this application in October 1998:
Less sympathetic is the proposal to convert Waterloo House into a café and bar. Listed Grade II* but now disused, it was built in the late 17th century as possibly the first purpose-built Assembley Rooms complex serving a spa resort. The CBA does not object to the proposed change of use, but to the method of it, particularly to the demolition of internal walls and the remodelling of the front elevation, which would be detrimental to the building's character.

A subsequent planning application for a themed pub was approved by English Heriitage and by the local council, though some local groups felt that the proposals did little to make use of the historic features of the building.

While the building's condition is described as "poor" in the Buildings at Risk register, it does still retain a surprising amount of the original fabric, and could be sympathetically restored by a new owner to become once again the glory of Epsom. The building is belived to be currently "under offer", hopefully to an organisation which understands the nature of the building and the hopes which many inhabitants of Epsom have for it.

Epsom Protection Society The society was founded in 1959 and is affiliated to the Civic Trust. Its aims are to conserve and enhance Epsom as a pleasant place to live, work and visit, to protect its distinctinve historical and architectural features, its trees and open spaces, the Downs and its adjacent Green Belt, and to promote harmonious and good quality developement. It publishes four Newsletters each year. Membership currently stands around 1,750. For further details, please contact the Secretary, Alan Baker, 2 Leighton Way, Epsom, KT18 7QZ (Email: marotalan@bigfoot.com)

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first posted 2000     last updated 10 June 2000