Numbers 50 And 52 (Even) And Attached Railings And Garden Gates

Numbers 50 and 52 are semi-detached villas built around 1841, located on the south side of Richmond Avenue in Islington. They are constructed from yellow stock bricks arranged in Flemish bond, with a stucco ground floor and decorative dressings. The villas feature hipped roofs with projecting eaves and central brick stacks.

The design follows a side-hall entrance plan with a staircase and exhibits Greco-Egyptian style details. Each villa has three storeys plus a basement, with two windows on each floor and a recessed link between them. The ground-floor bays are defined by stylised rounded pilasters topped with paterae, and a horizontal row of paterae runs between the pilasters above the entrance and sash windows.

Steps lead up to a deeply recessed entrance porch flanked by stone sphinxes and obelisks on a stucco balustrade, although the obelisks are missing from No. 52. The doorway features pilaster jambs and a corniced head, with an original four-panelled studded door and a rectangular overlight above. The windows are 6/6 sashes throughout, with ground-floor sashes having margin lights and recessed stucco panels below. The upper floors have stylised architraves adorned with paterae. The first floor includes a moulded stucco storey band and cast-iron Neoclassical style window guards with a palmette motif. Notably, No. 52 has coupled brackets at the eaves.

The linked garden gates are designed in the same style, although the iron guards have been removed, and there are attached cast-iron area railings. In 1925, writer Arnold Bennett noted the impressive sphinxes and obelisks in front of these villas in his diary after visiting the area.