Scott House, Caledonian Estate

Scott House is a block of flats forming part of the Caledonian Estate in Islington, designed and built around 1904-6 as part of a housing project by the London County Council. The architect was likely J.G.Stephenson. The estate is composed of five blocks arranged around a square, with Scott House situated to the south. Linked by brick arcades, the blocks largely mirror each other, with Irvine House to the west and Wallace House to the east being longer than Burns House to the north and Scott House to the south.

The building is constructed of red brick in English bond, with dressings of glazed brick, plaster, wrought iron, cast iron and reinforced concrete, and a tile roof. It stands five storeys high. The windows are generally segmental-arched sash windows, though later 20th-century glazing echoes the original arrangement.

The front elevation facing into the square is symmetrical, with a central portion featuring two windows. Above these, the fourth-floor flat-arched casements are separated by a buttress-like strip, the gable being double-curved and "shouldered." Balcony ranges flank the central section; the ground floor functions as a buttressed screen with segmental-arched openings leading to ground-floor flats and the staircase, with the parapet serving as a first-floor balcony balustrade. The flats on the first through fourth floors are set back, with flat-arched entrances and windows beneath segmental arches. Three entrances on each balcony have been blocked. Balconies of reinforced concrete extend from the second through fourth floors and are vertically linked by iron pipes terminating in brackets at fourth-floor level. The outer ranges have one window per floor up to the third floor, with the third-floor window flat-arched under a round arch. The corners are chamfered, and the fourth floor returns to the balcony with a chamfer, creating a polygonal plan with three flat-arched casements and a parapet. The roof is hipped, with a central ridge stack, rear slope stacks, and corbelled external stacks, the latter truncated. The south elevation features a central range of four windows with flat arches on the fourth floor under a double-curved, "shouldered" gable. Ranges of two windows are set beneath the eaves to either side, with fourth-floor casements having flat arches. Outer ranges of three windows are under a hipped roof, with the first, second, and third-floor windows beneath a round arch at the third floor, and the fourth-floor windows with flat arches.