20-24, OLD STREET

Nos. 20-24 on Old Street are workshops designed by architects Ford and Hesketh in 1880 for Samuel Haskins, who manufactured window blinds and revolving shutters. The building features a seven-bay range to the east and a six-bay range to the west, which was added between 1896 and 1898. It is constructed from cast iron, Portland stone, and presumably brick, with a roof that is obscured by a parapet. The structure rises five storeys and has a thirteen-window range.

The front of the building is flanked by Portland stone panelled piers and is decorated with cast iron arcades that include engaged columns with spiral and vertical fluting, foliage capitals, and quatrefoil openwork in the spandrels. The ground floor has a late 20th-century front behind the original metal arcade, featuring a round-arched entrance with extended basket arches on either side. The upper floors are identical and are articulated by round-arched arcades, each supporting a Portland stone entablature. A moulded stone cornice completes the design. Herbert Ford was known for his expertise in warehouse design, and at the time of his death in 1903, he had designed around four hundred warehouses in London.