Cobden Buildings

635-1/0/10153 KINGS CROSS ROAD 03-NOV-03 128 Cobden Buildings

GV II Block of eighteen philanthropic flats. 1865. By Matthew Allen, for the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, under the guidance of Sydney Waterlow. Painted stucco to ground floor and full-height recesses behind balconies. Flemish bond brick to rest, flat roofs behind parapets, with short stacks to side elevations. Five storeys, each with two or four flats set either side of central staircase and entered from balcony in centre of frontage.

Four bay frontage under moulded brick cornice. Central two bays divided by brick pier, set back behind cast-iron balustrade, aobve ground floor entrance now infilled and glazed. Outer bays have one window per floor, with three-section sash window each of three small panes in moulded architrave surround with brackets. Ground floor additionally has cornice, frieze and console brackets. Interiors not inspected.

Cobden Buildings was among the first dwellings erected by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, the first influential philanthropic housing company established in London, and the work of the influential Sydney Waterlow. The buildings are characterised by their distinctive design: rugged, strong materials and good finishes coupled with easy ventilation. Cobden Buildings in Islington forms a group with Derby Buildings across the road in Britannia Street, Camden.

Sources J M Tarn, 'The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company', in Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, vol.22, 1968-70, pp.43-59 J M Tarn, Working Class Housing in 19th Century Britain, 1971 J M Tarn, Five per Cent Philanthropy, 1973.