49-53, Clerkenwell Road

Former Holborn Union Offices, numbered 49–53 Clerkenwell Road. Built in 1885–1886, as confirmed by dates on the foundation stone and corner pediment. Designed by Alfred Saxon Snell for the Board of Guardians. The building is constructed in rubbed brick with cut and moulded dressings, blue brick to the base, and a roof of Welsh slate, executed in the Queen Anne style.

The main elevation to Clerkenwell Road presents a symmetrical front of three storeys with fourteen windows. A slightly projecting centrepiece contains two windows, flanked by outer bays of three windows each. The building extends into Britton Street as a two-storey wing of eleven windows, and a canted two-storey bay marks the corner. Throughout the building, windows are characteristically flat-arched with the lower part of the gauged brick head cut back in an ogee profile; the original glazing bars remain visible throughout.

Three round-arched entrances face Clerkenwell Road, with the central entrance notably broader than the outer pair. The outer entrances feature pilasters, stilted arches and archivolts. All entrances are flanked by fluted Doric pilasters which overlap their mouldings in a manner typical of the building's decorative vocabulary. These pilasters carry an entablature with triglyph frieze, festoons and drops, and pediments—the central pediment segmental. Each doorcase has a wooden cornice and scrolled pedimented central panel to the fanlight. Between the entrances are two sets of three windows with unmoulded architraves except for the ogee heads, which overlap the simple entablature running between the entrances.

On the first floor, the outer bays contain three round-arched windows with a decorative transom at springing level. These windows are flanked by pilasters with capitals at the springing, and a second shorter range of pilasters above; the spandrels are filled with festoons and drops beneath pediments with raking cornices. The central bay has two flat-arched windows flanked by pilasters supporting the main cornice, and two oculi above, flanked by pilasters supporting a segmental pediment. Two sets of three flat-arched windows occupy either side, overlapping and interrupting the frieze of festoons. The cornice features dentil and egg-and-dart mouldings. Pedimented dormers rise from the mansard roof; chimney stacks display triglyph friezes and deeply projecting cornices.

The wing in Britton Street and the corner bay continue the detailing from Clerkenwell Road with plain architraves overlapping the horizontal mouldings, though the two storeys here are taller. A frieze of scrolling foliage spans the ground floor, with ground-floor windows divided into lower and upper lights at that point. The upper floor displays a frieze of swags and drops, plus window aprons of ogee profile. The cornice and parapet continue to the corner, where an aedicule features scrolled consoles, fluted pilasters, a segmental pediment and a central cartouche inscribed 'HOLBORN UNION OFFICES 1886'. Chimney stacks echo the triglyph frieze and cornice detail. A square-plan lantern with an ogee lead roof and finial crowns the structure.

The interior retains numerous original features. The principal staircase from ground to first floor is of double imperial type with elaborate cast-iron balusters and mahogany rail; the staircase hall has a decorative plaster ceiling, and the landing window contains Aesthetic Movement stained glass. A secondary staircase from first to second floor in Clerkenwell Road features similar balusters. The passage from the landing to the Board of Guardians' Room has decorative terrazzo flooring and decorative tilework to the dado.

The Board of Guardians' Room on the first floor in Britton Street retains a panelled dado and original architraves to doors. An elaborate chimneypiece with central inscription and scrolled pediment dominates one wall. A gallery at the north end is carried on paired Doric pilasters with entablature, pulvinated frieze, dentil cornice and parapet with balustraded panels. The panelled ceiling is decorated with bay leaf ornament and foliage.