40 To 47 Wilmington Square And Attached Railings

The property comprises eight terraced houses, numbers 40 to 47 Wilmington Square, built between 1819 and 1831. They were designed by John Wilson, a builder for Lord Compton and the Spa Fields Estate. The houses are constructed of yellow stock brick in Flemish bond, with banded and rusticated brick (at numbers 40 and 47) and stucco to the ground floor and dressings. The roofs are hidden behind a parapet, with brick party-wall stacks. The houses follow a side-hall entrance plan with a staircase. They are four storeys high, with a basement, and generally have two windows per facade, plus one window to the right-hand return wall in Attneave Street (at number 40).

The group is symmetrical, with projecting end houses. Steps lead to the entrances; number 40 has a one-storey entrance extension. Round-arched doorways are set within narrow stucco recesses with fluted quarter-column jambs, except at number 40, which has reeded jambs with stops, carrying a corniced head, fanlight (present at numbers 40, 42, 43, and 47 with patterned designs), and an original panelled door (at numbers 42 and 47, replaced in the 20th century). Ground-floor sashes have 6/6 curved and radial glazing bars, all with gauged-brick flat arches, except for the first-floor sashes in the right-end house, which have gauged-brick round arches. A stucco sill band is present on the first floor (absent at number 40) beneath full-length 6/6 sashes, most of which have individual cast-iron balconies (except at numbers 44, 45, and 47, where they are coupled and supported by iron brackets). Stucco storey bands delineate the second (6/6 sashes) and third (3/3 sashes) floors; the third floor also has a projecting stucco cornice and sill band, except at number 47, which has been cut back and rendered in concrete. The stucco cornice and blocking course have been altered, except at number 47, where they have been cut back, heightened, and rendered in concrete. Attached cast-iron railings incorporate urn finials.

Wilmington Square was created from the Earls of Northampton's Spa Fields Estate, which in 1817 the ninth Earl assigned to his heir Lord Compton. The subsequent building in Wilmington Square was one of London's first post-Waterloo developments. Financial difficulties led to a reduction in the square's depth, leaving it as a backwater on the fringes of larger estates.