Burns House, Caledonian Estate

Burns House is a block of flats constructed circa 1904-6 as part of the Caledonian Estate in Islington, designed by the Housing of the Working Classes Branch of the London County Council Architect's Department, likely under the direction of J.G. Stephenson. The estate comprises five blocks arranged in a square, with Burns House situated to the north. It is linked to the opposite blocks via brick arcades featuring three round arches.

The building is constructed of red brick in English bond, with dressings of glazed brick, plaster, wrought iron, cast iron, and reinforced concrete, and has a tile roof. It rises five storeys. The windows are generally segmental-arched sash windows, with late 20th-century glazing which mimics the original window arrangement.

The symmetrical front facing the square is composed of five sections. The central section has two windows, with flat-arched casements on the fourth floor, flanked by a buttress-like strip featuring a double-curved “shouldered” gable. Two-window “balcony” ranges flank the central section; the ground floor incorporates a buttressed screen with segmental-arched openings for flats and the staircase, the parapet of the screen acting as a balcony balustrade to the first floor. The flats on the first, second, third, and fourth floors are set back and have flat-arched entrances and windows beneath segmental arches. One of the three entrances on each balcony is now blocked. Reinforced concrete balconies extend across the second, third, and fourth floors, linked vertically by iron pipes terminating in brackets at fourth-floor level. The outer ranges have one window per floor up to the third floor, with a flat-arched window under a round arch at the third-floor level; the corners are chamfered, and the fourth-floor return to the balcony is also chamfered, resulting in a polygonal plan with three flat-arched casements and a parapet.

The hips roof has a central ridge stack, rear slope stacks, and corbelled external stacks, some of which are truncated. The north elevation has a central range of four windows with flat arches on the fourth floor below a double-curved “shouldered” gable. Ranges of two windows flank this section under the eaves. The outer ranges have three windows under a hipped roof, with windows on the first, second, and third floors set under a round arch at the third floor, and flat-arched windows on the fourth floor.