Mountford House

Mountford House is a detached villa dating from 1830 to 1835, later extended in the 20th century with substantial additions to the side and rear, originally for factory use. The house is built of brick, with a banded stucco ground floor and stucco upper floors. It has a Welsh-slate hipped roof with projecting bracketed eaves, and brick stacks at the centre and ends of the roof.

The building is two storeys, with an attic and basement, and has a symmetrical five-window front. Steps lead to a round-arched, architraved doorway with a pair of panelled doors and a radial fanlight. The ground floor has six-over-six sash windows, one flank either side of the entrance. The first floor has similar sashes, but these are set within arched recesses with archivolts and shell motifs in the triangular section above the arch (typana), and are linked by a moulded impost string. The attic storey has five horizontal sliding sashes, flanked by bracketed consoles. The left return is also stuccoed, but features brown brick banding. This return has a double-fronted plan with three windows, an arched, architraved doorway with a panelled door and a 20th-century fanlight, and 20th-century sash windows. A 20th-century brick storey-band is visible on the first floor.

According to local history, Mountford House was built on the site of a moat in the early 1830s. Folklore once linked the site to a Roman praetorium within an entrenchment, with some historians suggesting it marked the camp of Suetonius Paulinus before the Battle of Watling Street. However, this link lacks archaeological support, and the moat was likely a remnant of a farm belonging to Barnsbury Manor. The interior follows a centre-hall plan.