383 To 399, St John Street And Attached Railings

Nine terraced houses with ground-floor shops on the west side of St John Street, Islington, dated c.1820-1830. Possibly designed by William Chadwell Mylne, Surveyor for the New River Estate. The shopfronts were altered or reconstructed in 1981.

The buildings are constructed of yellow stock brick in Flemish bond with stucco ground floors. Numbers 383-385 have ashlar-lined shopfronts, Numbers 391-397 have wooden shopfronts, and Number 399 has a glazed-tile shopfront. The roofs are obscured and party walls have brick stacks.

Numbers 383-389 follow a side-hall entrance plan, whilst Numbers 391-399 have ground-floor shop plans with domestic accommodation on the upper floors. All buildings are three storeys tall, some with basements, and mostly have two windows each. Number 399 differs, with one window plus two windows with returns in Chadwell Street.

Windows on the upper floors are six-over-six sashes set within gauged-brick flat arches. Number 399 has architraved arches to the first floor with bracketed cornices and rosettes. The first floor features a stucco sill band beneath full-length sashes, each with individual cast-iron balconies with Gothic pattern railings, except Number 399. Number 399 also has a stucco sill band to the second floor. Some rebuilding of upper floors has occurred. A plain brick parapet with stone coping runs along the roofline.

The ground floors of Numbers 383-389 have round-arched entrances set in recesses with rising steps. Doorways are positioned to the right and feature quarter-fluted column jambs (except Number 383, which has a reeded surround and plain corner blocks) carrying corniced heads, plain fanlights, and original panelled doors at Numbers 387-389. Ground-floor windows are six-over-six and two-over-two round-arched sashes, some with curved and radial glazing bars, set in panelled recesses. Numbers 383-389 retain attached cast-iron railings. Numbers 391-399 have altered or reconstructed shopfronts with house doors giving access to upper floors positioned to the right, except Number 399, which has a panelled house door with patterned fanlight on its right-hand return wall in Chadwell Street. The ground floors of Numbers 391-399 are articulated by original bracketed pilasters, fascia and cornice, with reconstructed shop windows and doors.

Number 399 retains a distinctive original copper-coloured tile shopfront with blue detailing, composed of a corner entrance with flanking shop windows. The windows are wood-grained and varnished with pivot transoms and marble sills. The painted glass fascia features gold lettering reading "J. R. Wall & Co." on each elevation.

The interior of Number 399 retains the layout shown in a plan of 1928, including the separate wooden pay desk to the rear of the shop and marble counter tops with chrome fittings, likely also dating from that period.

Number 399 has operated as a butcher's shop since first occupation in 1845. Until 1910 the shop was owned and operated by the Bland family. In 1910 the firm of Chalk and Cross took over, and in 1928, as Chalk and Cox, commissioned J. Cannon and Son, builders, contractors and shopfitters of Stoke Newington, to carry out alterations. The extent of their work is uncertain, but the shop as it exists today is primarily their creation. The present family business, J. R. Wall and Company (Late Bland), has occupied the premises since 1940. The exterior tilework was replaced sympathetically in 1981.

These buildings are included for group value.