20-24, OLD STREET

ISLINGTON

TQ3282SW OLD STREET 635-1/75/672 (South side) 12/10/78 Nos.20-24 (Even)

II

Workshops. The seven-bay range to the east designed in 1880 by Ford and Hesketh for Samuel Haskins, manufacturer of window blinds and revolving shutters; the six bays to the west added in 1896-98 by the same architects. Cast iron, Portland stone and presumably brick, roof obscured by parapet. Five storeys, thirteen-window range. The two ranges of the Old Street front are flanked by Portland stone panelled piers; the front is articulated by cast iron arcades consisting of engaged columns with spiral and vertical fluting and foliage capitals, and quatrefoil openwork in the spandrels. Ground floor has late C20 front behind original metal arcade in the form of round-arched entrance with extended basket arches on either side.The upper floors are identical and are articulated by round-arched arcades each carrying a Portland stone entablature on which the next arcade rests; moulded stone cornice. Herbert Ford was a specialist in warehouse design and at his death in 1903 was said to have designed four hundred warehouses in London. (Historians' file, English Heritage London Division).

Listing NGR: TQ3210282238