53 And 55, Highbury New Park

These are a pair of semi-detached houses located on Highbury New Park, dating from 1856. They were developed by Henry Rydon and were probably designed by Charles Hambridge. The houses are constructed of yellow brick with red brick dressings and stucco, and have a roof of Welsh and artificial slate.

Each house originally had two windows, though number 55 has been extended to the right, incorporating a basement and a three-window ground-floor wing. The basement and ground floor are stuccoed and project slightly forward. The basement is decorated with banded rustication. The ground floor features a round-arched entrance set back under a flat-arched porch, the entrance incorporating pilasters, sidelights, a cornice, a fanlight, and a panelled door of original design. The ground-floor windows have flat arches, with panelled pilasters dividing the openings and carrying an entablature with guilloche ornament to the frieze, topped by a blocking course. The first-floor windows are round-arched, with hollow-moulded recessed architraves beneath pointed-arched heads, now stuccoed, and incorporating courses of red brick between the windows. A sill band of angled bricks runs beneath the second floor. The second-floor windows are flat-arched, set within recessed surrounds of red brick with heads of gauged red brick. The eaves have an angled brick cornice, and the roof is hipped, with stacks to the party wall and end stacks.

The design of these houses matches that of numbers 41-43 and 141-43 Highbury New Park.