7 To 9 And 13 To 53 (Odd) Noel Road And Attached Railings

Terraced houses dating from around 1840, built in yellow brick set in Flemish bond with stucco detailing and a parapet roof. The terrace comprises three storeys throughout, with most houses having two windows each, except No. 9 which has four windows, including the former No. 11.

The basement and ground floor are stuccoed, with the ground floor decorated in banded rustication. The entrance doors feature segmental arches with pilaster-jambs, cornices and fanlights. Several houses retain decorative glazing to their fanlights: Nos. 7–9, 17, 23, 31–39, and 51. Original panelled doors survive at Nos. 7, 13–17, 25–27, 37–39, and 51, while the former No. 11 has a window replacing its door. Ground-floor windows are round-arched. The stucco terminates at first-floor sill level. Upper windows are flat-arched with gauged brick heads, and iron balconies mark the first-floor windows. Original sash windows remain at Nos. 7 and 9 (ground floor), 13, 19 (first floor), 25, 29 (ground floor), 31–37, 39 (ground and first floors), 41–43, and 45 (ground floor). The parapet has undergone considerable rebuilding across most houses, though a cornice survives at Nos. 17 and 31. Cast-iron railings protect the area.

The playwright and author Joe Orton lived in a bed-sit at No. 25 from 1959 until his death in 1967. He shared the small flat, measuring 16 feet by 12 feet, with his partner Kenneth Halliwell. Orton trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts between 1951 and 1953, where he met Halliwell. His early collaborative works with Halliwell were rejected. Working alone, Orton wrote under pseudonyms including Edna Welthorpe, producing the play Fred and Madge and the novel Priapus in the Shrubbery in 1959.

Orton's major works emerged in the mid-1960s. His 1963 play Entertaining Mr Sloane reached theatres in 1964, followed by The Boy Hairdresser, which the BBC adapted and retitled The Ruffian on the Stair. He wrote Loot in 1964, later revised for performance in 1965, and What the Butler Saw in 1967. His plays brought homosexuality openly onto the stage.

In protest against Islington Library's collection, Orton and Halliwell stole and altered library books, extracting plates from art books to create 1,653 montages on their flat walls. They also modified dust jackets and covers. Orton enjoyed observing readers' reactions to the doctored books he had smuggled back. This activity ended when police raided the flat on 28 April 1962. Both were convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, which Orton attributed partly to their being homosexual.

Prison profoundly affected Orton. By 1964 he described the experience as transforming his attitude to society. He separated briefly from Halliwell afterwards and found a new creative liberation, developing a detached, scornful view of conventional society and its hypocrisy. On 9 August 1967, Halliwell murdered Orton at the flat and died by suicide. The London Borough of Islington has commemorated Orton with a plaque at second-floor level.