26, Pancras Road

26 Pancras Road is a gymnasium and library, now used as offices and a gymnasium, built between 1864 and 1865 by Edward Gruning for the German Gymnastic Society. The building was constructed by Piper and Wheeler using multi-coloured stock brick and has a rectangular plan with a narrow entrance that slightly projects onto Pancras Road.

The exterior features a three-storey frontage with one window. It has a stucco door surround with pilasters that support a dentil entablature and a segmental pediment. The round-arched doorway has pilaster jambs supporting an architrave with a keystone, a fanlight, and 20th-century panelled doors with small lights. The first floor has a recessed four-pane sash window with a stuccoed lintel adorned with a mask, while the second floor features a round-arched four-pane sash window with a stuccoed head. There is a moulded brick cornice and blocking course at the top. The north and south elevations have brick pilasters that divide the bays, with rectangular windows, brick bands on the first floor, and a deep Lombard frieze at the eaves level, along with brick gables. The hipped roof has a continuous lantern along the ridge. The gabled east elevation includes a gabled brick porch with five pointed arch windows, an oculus above, a very deep Lombard frieze, and an enriched brick cornice. To the left, there is a staircase tower with narrow lights, although those at the base have been bricked up, and a Lombard frieze.

Inside, there is a narrow entrance hall featuring an Imperial stair that spans the entire width of the hall with two flights followed by one. The gymnasium is a single cell divided into a nave and aisles by two storeys of cast-iron piers with early English foliage capitals. These piers support arched, laminated wood roof trusses that span approximately 20 meters, similar to those experimented with but replaced at King's Cross Station on Euston Road. A second floor has been added at gallery level to provide office accommodation. This building is an important early example of using laminated timber to achieve broad spans.