26 and 27, Cowcross Street

This workshop or warehouse building dates to 1879 and was designed by Thomas Milbourn. A ground-floor entrance was added around 1925. It is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with decorative dressings of blue and yellow brick, terracotta, stone, and tiles. The roof is hidden behind a parapet. The building is four storeys high and has a four-window front. The original ground-floor configuration has been largely removed, with only the fascia and a flat-arched entrance to the left remaining. The entrance is faced with ashlar and features fluted panels and wrought-ironwork to the grilles, overlight, and door.

The upper windows are shallow, straight-sided pointed arches made of stone, with chamfered faces decorated with dogtooth ornament. Above each window head is a pointed-arched panel featuring varied decorative elements. The first-floor panels have bands of blue, red, and yellow brick – horizontal over the outer windows and diagonal over the inner. The second-floor panels have moulded terracotta ornament against blue brick over the outer windows, and octagonal tiles over the inner. The third floor has terracotta decoration over the two outer windows, followed by sections of tiles and terracotta. All windows are divided into two straight-sided pointed arches with slim metal columns, except for the second-floor window on the right-hand side. Moulded sill bands are present on the second and third floors. There are openwork stone quatrefoils in the spandrels between the windows, and a continuous arcade of relieving arches in brick and stone along the parapet.