79-85, ESSEX ROAD

Terrace of four houses, now shops and offices, situated on Essex Road in Islington. The building dates from the late 17th century, was refronted in the late 18th century, and underwent 20th-century extension.

The exterior is constructed of red-brown brick to the gable end walls, with some stock brick, and the remainder rendered or painted. The roofing consists of four bays of original hipped tile roofs, with mostly pitched tile roofs elsewhere and some slate. The building stands two storeys over basement with dormers in the attic, and includes a ground-floor front extension.

The first-floor facade is rendered with quoins at the angles and between groups of windows. A rendered band with dropped keystones runs over the windows. The windows are grouped in a pattern of 5:5:1, mostly sashes with some blocked. Five flat-roofed full dormers with casements of mixed glazing frame sit behind a parapet. Gable parapets crown the front elevation. Interior stacks are positioned at the left-hand gable, the centre forward of the ridge, and to the right at the ridge itself.

The left-hand return features a lower wall in exposed red-brown brick with rendered upper portion. A stock brick and rendered slate-roofed extension extends to the rear, upon which sits a slate-hung upper-storey room. A tall stack rises from this section. Four bays of hipped roofs with moulded timber eaves are visible to the side. Varied windows at full and mid-storey levels appear to the rear, some flush-set with small-paned sashes featuring glazing bars, and a round-arched small-paned sash lights a stairwell.

Internally, original rooms are largely intact above ground floor. On the left, a dog-leg staircase of three flights features moulded tread ends and a simple ramped mahogany rail with pronounced curtail. This continues above as a late 17th-century closed-string staircase with twisted balusters alternating with turned balusters at the upper landing. Plain square newels with half-balusters set into moulded caps carry a moulded rail.

The first-floor front room, now of five window bays, was formerly two rooms. The left portion retains most of its moulded cornice from the early phase of building. Doors throughout are of six recessed panels. To the rear, at half-landing level beneath a slate roof, a room features a barrel-vaulted ceiling with moulded dado rail and skirting. Two rear-facing sashes have recessed panelled reveals. A classical fireplace with cast-iron grate is flanked by cupboards with six-panel doors. The rear room is partly divided off as a passage, with plain panelled dado and moulded middle rail suggesting full-height panelling may survive beneath upper boarding. The attic floor is mostly boarded over, though panelling may survive beneath. A simple fireplace and coupled rafter roof with collars are visible where exposed.

The central staircase is a late 17th-century closed-string dog-leg rising intact from basement to attic, with square newels featuring recessed panels, turned balusters, and a heavy moulded rail. Dado panelling to the stairwell includes some matchboard panelling. The first-floor front room of two bays retains complete late 17th-century panelling, mostly plain but with a raised moulded panel to the overmantel. A simple door architrave is blocked. The right-hand staircase has stick balusters at the base and turned balusters to the upper storey, with plain panelled walls and stairwell. The first-floor front room retains some moulded dado rail.

This building represents a very rare survival of late 17th-century houses in the Islington Green area, where most were redeveloped in the late 18th century.