Numbers 26 To 50 (Consecutive) And Attached Railings

Numbers 26 to 50, a group of 25 terraced houses now used as flats, form the western half of Milner Square, built in 1841 by Roumieu and Gough. The square underwent alterations in the 1930s and was remodelled and restored in 1978 by Islington Council. The houses are constructed of grey and beige brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with stucco dressings and a ground floor finish. The roofs and party-wall stacks are hidden by parapets. The layout follows a side-hall entrance plan with a staircase.

The architecture is in an austere Neoclassical style, reflecting a strongly unified and idiosyncratic design. Milner Square is an oblong shape that angles outwards at the ends where it meets the exit roads, featuring re-entrant corners with rounded outer angles. Each house has four storeys and a basement, with three windows per facade. A prominent giant order of pilastrade runs up the first and second floors, rising from a ground storey entablature to a substantial stucco entablature above the second floor. Broad brick pilasters with raised edges frame the first and second floor sash windows, which are horizontally separated by wide moulded stucco panels. The first-floor windows are full-length 3/3 sashes with margin lights and simple iron balconettes. The second-floor windows are 2/2 sashes with margin lights and iron window guards featuring a foliated pattern. The ground floor has a two-window wide entrance bay with steps leading to a recessed doorway flanked by pilasters supporting a corniced head. Within the doorway is a three-panelled door, a rectangular overlight, and flanking pilasters. A tripartite sash window is set in a panelled recess. A brick arcade is positioned above the pilasters on the third floor, incorporating narrow blind arches and windows in line with the upper floors. A plain stucco parapet tops the building, with a stucco band marking the former location of a cornice.

Attached iron railings feature arrowhead finials, stanchions, and smaller intermediate finials. The design varies slightly at the exit roads, which each have a further four houses on either side. Milner House, also designed by the same architects and in a similar but less assertive style, connects Milner Square with Gibson Square. Milner Square is notable for its distinctive design logic, a style rarely seen outside Scotland and the north of England, and unlike anything else in London.