14-16, Cowcross Street

ISLINGTON

TQ3181NE COWCROSS STREET 635-1/77/345 (North side) Nos.14-16 (Consecutive)

GV II

Workshops. c.1870. Originally in multi-occupation, by druggists sundriesmen, infants' milliners and artificial flower manufacturers, so probably speculatively built. Yellow brick set in Flemish bond, stone, dressings of white brick and stone; roof obscured by parapet; internal construction of cast-iron columns, flitch plates and timber beams. Five storeys over basement, the fourth floor obscured by parapet; seven-window range. Ground floor faced with stone and divided into one broad bay flanked by two narrower ones: pilasters with foliage capitals supporting moulded segmental arches, the moulding turned through ninety degrees onto the impost; roundels of geometrical ornament in the spandrels; bracketed cornice; the right-hand bay has double doors flanked by pilasters, brackets of particularly original design, and sidelights; cornice over and overlight; the central and left-hand bays have cast-iron area grilles and round-arched glazing bars, the middle bay with double doors to the centre. Upper windows grouped 2-3-2, those to the first and second floors having segmental arches of gauged white brick with stone keystones and stone springing bands, the inner arches of the pairs and triplets carried on slim metal columns; the third floor windows round-arched with chamfered heads of gauged white brick; sills to second and third floors set on a band of angled brickwork. Fine stone modillion cornice set on a band of angled brickwork; high parapet. End stack. The interior preserves the main and simple lines of the original building intact apart from enclosed spaces round the staircase and single-storey additions to the rear: two ranks of cast-iron columns running parallel with the street front and carrying timber beams on all but the top floor; staircase with wreathed and ramped handrail, open string and stick balusters. (Letter from the occupants, Alan Baxter & Associates).

Listing NGR: TQ3171481856