Number 311 And Attached Railings

Former Islington Congregational Chapel and school, now a recording studio. Built in 1888–9 by architects Bonella and Henry John Paull. The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings (now painted), rubbed brick and possibly stucco, beneath a clay-tiled roof. It comprises two main storeys over a basement.

The front elevation onto Upper Street displays the 'Queen Anne' style, influenced by Richard Norman Shaw's Church of St Michael and All Angels at Bedford Park. A two-storey wing projects to the north, followed by the main symmetrical elevation featuring a projecting gabled centre, single-window side wings, and projecting single-storey porches. The north wing has a flat-arched entrance with architrave and storey band; above is an elliptical-arched first-floor window with impost blocks and a scrolled-profile apron, flanked by pilasters, with coving to the eaves and a pyramidal roof. The porches to the main front have stone segmental-arched entrances with pilasters and cornices, and decorative wrought-iron gates and cresting to the south porch.

The projecting gabled section displays two elliptical-arched openings to the basement with recessed windows of different elliptical profile. Above these are four small round-arched windows with a crenellated storey band, rising into a large three-sided oriel with glazing executed in cast-iron by the St Pancras Iron Work Company, following the tradition of Sparrowe's House, Ipswich, and Richard Norman Shaw. A date panel reading '1888' sits in the apex of the gable, with an octagonal lantern crowning the gable ridge. Scrolled consoles mask the mansard roof slope; a cornice runs over the oriel. The side bays contain first-floor segmental-arched windows with decorative-profile aprons, set almost flush with the wall.

The Gaskin Street elevation features a seven-window range, with the easternmost bay projecting as a porch with elliptical-arched entrance, pilasters, fanlight and shell-mould hood with scrolled brackets. The windows follow the Upper Street sequence: elliptical-arched to basement, small round-arched above, and segmental-arched to first floor with decorative aprons flanked by pilasters. Coving adorns the eaves; three blank cross-gables rise in the roof, with a chimney stack towards the south-east corner. Area railings with finials in the style of circa 1800 are attached to the building.

Interior features include a dog-leg staircase towards Upper Street with square newel posts, some cast-iron balusters decorated with palmette ornament and others of turned wood, with a moulded rail. This staircase now runs from basement through the raised ground floor to first-floor level. On the Gaskin Street side, a second similar staircase rises from basement to gallery level. The former chapel retains its apse and gallery, which includes a cornice to the apse, an organ made by H. Speechly and Sons in a case styled circa 1700, a balustrade and three tiers of seats. Windows throughout the building are glazed in cast-iron, made by the St Pancras Iron Work Company.