The Mall

The Mall in Islington is a former electricity transformer station and tram depot, dating from 1905-6 and constructed by the London County Council’s Architect’s Department. The building is now occupied by shops and a restaurant. It is built of yellow brick in English bond, with stone dressings and a roof of Welsh slate.

The side facing Islington High Street is divided into three bays by rusticated piers, with banded rustication throughout. The broad inner piers are situated on either side of a central round-arched entrance and contain ground-floor and mezzanine flat-arched windows. Outer piers are arranged in pairs, flanking round-arched windows with impost blocks; there are three flat-arched windows in each side bay. A moulded stone cornice is topped by a brick parapet with stone coping.

The side facing Upper Street is largely blank but is the most significant architecturally. It features a screen wall with rusticated piers at each end, and two pavilions which form a central feature with the intervening bay. Each pavilion contains a niche, incorporating rusticated brickwork and a stone archivolt and springing band. Within each niche is a blank stone aedicule with simplified mouldings. Small windows with flat arches and gauged brick keystones are located between the pavilions, though two northern windows are obscured by added brickwork. A moulded stone springing band runs the length of the building, connecting to the end entrances. A moulded stone cornice with modillions features over the pavilions, above which is a brick parapet with stone coping to the centrepiece. Metal ventilators are positioned along the ridge of the roof.

The north and south elevations incorporate a massive round arch with broad rusticated pilasters and stone archivolt, each capped with a modillion cornice and parapet. Several elements of the building, particularly the pavilions on the Upper Street frontage, the blank walling and the niches with aedicules, were influenced by and serve as a reference to Newgate Prison, designed by George Dance II, which was demolished in 1902.